Asia e Africa. On 23 September 2023, the ISS-FMA, Asia-Africa Higher Education Institutions organized an international webinar on the topic “Empowering Youth in the Digital Age: Facing change and preparing for the future”. There were approximately 288 participants in the webinar via the Zoom platform and 716 on YouTube, coming from various institutions from all over the world.
Dr. Scholastica Mary, Associate Professor of the Auxilium College (Autonomous) of Vellore – India, gave the welcome greeting at the meeting. There were then two sessions focused on youth empowerment.
Fr. Joe Mannath, Salesian of Don Bosco of the Faculty of Don Bosco Renewal Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, spoke to the participants on “Seven key areas in which young people must be understood and helped,” exposing the challenges and risks of technological era, which influence the integral growth of the current generation, including the relationship between parents and children, the relationship between peers, etc.
The intervention by Fr. Arockia Selvakumar SDB, CEO of Alaihal Media in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, was titled: “Towards Online Identity: Empowering Youth in the Virtual World”. Fr. Arockia highlighted how the web conditions today’s generation and underlined how a person must monitor the use of the Internet and its resources.
The speakers then answered the questions posed by the participants. Salika, a postgraduate student of English and Avanthika, postgraduate students of business administration from Auxilium College, Vellore expressed their thanks on behalf of the student community. Sister Regina Mary, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians of the Province of St. Thomas the Apostle (INM), of the Auxilium College of Vellore and Member of the ISS-FMA Commission, Asia-Africa, in turn thanked those present and the entire team who collaborated in the creation of the webinar.
These are experiences that aim to strengthen the educational alliances between the Institutions of Higher Studies (ISS-FMA), reviving the commitment to caring for and accompanying the new generations.
