To face this worldwide challenge together, more than 120 students from 60 cities around the globe gathered at the First World Youth Cyber Meeting on Coronavirus, organized by Scholas Occurrentes and blessed by Pope Francis.
Scholas Occurrentes, an international organization of Pontifical Right created by Pope Francis, is present in 190 countries and its network integrates 500.000 schools and educational networks. Its mission is to achieve the integration of all students in the world through technological, sports, and artistic initiatives that promote education based on the culture of encounter. Currently, the Scholas Occurrentes Foundation has a network of 100 universities and 35 observing organizations from 35 countries, including the Scholas Occurrentes Regional Center within SNSPA, coordinated by professor Iordan Gh. Bărbulescu, PhD, President of the Senate, SNSPA.
In the centre of this unprecedented situation experienced by hundreds of countries due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the conviction that the “culture of the encounter” is more necessary than ever, young people from 60 cities, such as Miami, Maputo, Santo Domingo, Rome, Madrid, Port-au-Prince, Lisbon, Asunción del Paraguay, Barranquilla, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Mexico City, Barcelona, Setagaya-Ku, Porto, La Plata, Naples, Tampa, Vigo, Panama, Bucharest, Cascais, Monterrey, Medellín, among many others, met online on Friday, March 27th, 2020, to generate a space for mental health and fresh air, to share their impressions, not without fear and confusion, and to appeal to empathy, responsibility and solidarity.
By the end of the encounter, when none of the youths was ready to log off, José María del Corral, co-founder of the Scholas world network, along with Enrique Palmeyro and Pope Francis, told them: “Today you have created the best vaccine and named it ‘hope’”.
