The WeCARE for schools event occurred on 12th of May 2023. Each EuCARE partner involved in the EuCARE schools study – Italy, Portugal and Mexico, held an hybrid event where the main focus was sharing experiences and compare different schools contexts. The local event was accompanied by an exciting hybrid session, where all three countries got together to dialogue in their own language.
Below you can find more information on the specific local events.
Italy( http://ihmtweb.ihmt.unl.pt/EuCare/QuotidianodiPuglia1.pdf):
The University of Salento, located in the Baroque city of Lecce, hosted the Italian session of the event. The local health authorities welcomed the EuCARE scientific team and numerous students and teachers, in attendance to talk about their first hand experience of the project. Francesca Incardona (EuResist Network), Sara Gandini (IEO) and Pier Luigi Lopalco (University of Salento) opened the session. Two presentations followed on the preliminary results of the studies, then the schools were given the floor to have their say. School principals, teachers and above all young people expressed their support for their participation in the project, saying that the “Lolli Methode” made them feel safer and more protected as well as more confident of not being a ‘danger’ to others. Teachers and principals said they too had been pleased to contribute to a research project and also to teach their students the importance of research and the ethical relevance of participation.
Francesca Incardona and Pier Luigi Lopalco thanked the five participating schools: 5°Circolo didattico “Livio Tempesta”, Istituto Comprensivo SQUINZANO, Istituto Comprensivo “Ammirato – Falcone”, Istituto Comprensivo 1° Polo “S. Colonna”, Istituto Comprensivo G. Falcone, and awarded them certificates of participation acknowledging their invaluable contribution to the project.
Thank you to Istituto Comprensivo Falcone di Copertino for this amazing word cloud!
Portugal:
The Portuguese event was held in the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, New University of Lisbon, the Eucare partner. In this session, teachers and students of the schools participating in the project, as well as public health profissionals from the geographic areas of the schools. The session started with a warm welcome by the Institute’s Director for research, Miguel Viveiros, and by the project leader at IHMT, Ana Abecasis. Then, the session was followed by several presentations by the schools’ coordinators, teachers and students from Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. Azevedo Neves, Agrupamento de Escolas José Cardoso Pires and Agrupamento de Escolas São João do Estoril. All these participants of the study shared important testimonies regarding their experience with the EuCARE schools study project. One of the public health professionals who were present in the meeting, Dora Vaz who is also a member of the project, gave a presentations regarding the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic scenario in Portugal and about the objectives of the project in the Portuguese schools. Finally, to finalize the event, the preliminary results of the project were presented by Daniela Alves and Inês Cruz Alves from IHMT.
Along the event, all the participants shared how great this experience has been for all members of their schools’ communities and what an important bond has been established between the participating schools and the researchers of IHMT. The importance of science and the collaborations between research institutions and schools was clear all through the event.
Mexico:
The Mexican session was held in the Instituto Gandhi in León in collaboration with the University of Guanajuato. The local event started by the shared hybrid session, where the director of the Instituto Gandhi, a teacher and a student had their say. Then the local session started, where the EuCARE partner Gibran Rubio Quintanares shared his knowledge about the “Lolli method” and the session was finalized by a presentation of partial results.
To see more captured moments of the event in these different countries, click here!
