Youths present proposals to face world problems to the Pope

A group of secondary students of all the continents presented commitments and proposals to Pope Francisco, to face wars and terrorism, promote the protection of the planet and responsible consumption, and find solutions to the economic crisis, after debating these problems during the Intercontinental Youths Meeting organized by the Scholas Ocurrentes Foundation with the support of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, and the Varkey Foundation

Enrique García, CAF's Executive President, participated in the ceremony to deliver the document to the Pope at the Vatican, which was held in front of an audience of more than 500 people of all nationalities, beliefs, and races. 

Gracía stated, "Pope Francisco has clearly stated his commitment with youths through the educational projects that strengthen the values of integration, peace, and the common good. Youths will be the leaders of changes in the world and, for this reason, at CAF we strongly support this purpose and we are proud to facilitate this intercontinental meeting which is so rewarding". 

Scholas Occurrentes is a non-profit international organization promoted by Pope Francisco, and with the mission of changing the world through education, works with public and private schools of all religious and non-religious beliefs from the five continents, to develop and socialize educational projects that stimulate the development of human creativity, cooperative work, and integration of diversity. 

In October of last year, CAF and Scholas Ocurrentes signed an agreement to strengthen and expand the educational initiatives of Scholas and generate a leap in equitable access to quality education in the region. 

On this occasion, Scholas Ocurrentes, with the support of CAF and the Varkey Foundation, a non-profit organization founded to improve the educational standards of the less privileged children worldwide, organized the Intercontinental Youths Meeting in the Vatican City, which was held between May 27th and 29th, and whose results were presented on Sunday, May 29th personally to Pope Francisco in the framework of the VI World Congress of Scholas Occurrentes.

In addition to President Garcia, the event included the participation of other important world personalities, such as the Secretary General of the SEGIB, Rebeca Grynspan, the President of the IDB, Luis Alberto Moreno, the President of the FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and actors George Clooney, Richard Gere, and Salma Hayek.

During the three day meeting, twenty-three students between the ages of 15 and 17, representing all religions and countries form the five contienents (Argentina, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Mozambique, Spain, And Paraguay) worked together to propose solutions from a global and common perspective to the problems included in the papal encyclical letter "Laudato Sí": war and terrorism, protection of the planet and responsible consumption, and the economic crisis. 

In the conclusions, which were presented and discussed initially by the Max Trejo, Secretary General of the International Organizations of Youths for Ibero-America (OIJ, for its acronym in Spanish), and the ministers and secretaries of the youth areas of ten Ibero-American countries, the youths expressed that we all have the right to live in a world that is socially and environmentally sustainable, and proposed a series of measures in each area of discussion proposed by Scholas:

Economic Crisis:

• Promote values such as integrity in social and economic relations 
• Change the basis of the current education 
• Address the existing social and environmental debt 
• Promote fairer conditions for trade between countries 
• Guarantee the rights of workers 

War and terrorism

• Promote joint actions between countries to address the situation of refugees and people displaced by wars. 
• Generate social cooperation through the social networks to help refugees  
• Implement policies for the control and reduction of arms 
• Support advertising campaigns to promote values such as tolerance and respect  

Environmental problems

• Reduce the amount of waste produced by society 
• Educate and create awareness in the current and future generations, starting with our families, homes, and neighbors 
• Promote the use of public and sustainable transportation 
• Promote recycling

The meeting developed under the methodology proposed by Scholas Ciudadanía: students worked in a cooperative manner, using the inter-continental, inter-religious, and inter-cultural subjects as the meeting point for world union. The thought processes and proposals to the problems came from themselves after sharing the situation in their own countries and developing a common diagnosis. 

At the time of the delivery of the final document to Pope Francisco, a group with a strong presence in the social networks ("youtubers") was also present, in addition to the young members of an Argentinean orchestra which is part of CAF's initiative "Music to Grow", who played a piece for the Pope.