Below is a Vatican-provided translation of Pope Francis’ address to directors of the Vodafone Foundation, which is promoting an initiative called ‘Instant Schools for Africa,’ working to provide online educative resources to young people on the African continent. The Pope received the foundation this morning in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall:
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I welcome all of you and I thank the Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Group for his presentation on this interesting initiative entitled “Instant Schools for Africa”, which seeks to offer online access to important educational resources for a great number of African youth, as we have heard, some of whom are living in refugee camps.
This project is part of the wider spectrum of public and private initiatives that promote a more inclusive and supportive world, providing opportunities for development to individuals and social groups at risk of being excluded.
I wish to express my appreciation for this initiative and I would like to suggest that, in implementing such a project, care be taken to provide these young people with some orientation in methodology, so that they can learn not only how to use tools, but how to use them as tools, thus enabling them to bring out the best of these means in a free and critical way.
Finally, a desire of mine: that, among the resources offered to youth, there may be digital access to the sacred texts of various religions, in their respective languages. This would be a beautiful sign of care for the religious dimension so deeply rooted among African peoples, and a sign also of encouraging interreligious dialogue.
Thank you again for your kind visit, and I wish you much success in this project, which from what I have heard, I like a lot. It is constructive, and today we need to be constructive, to do things that lead humanity ahead, and not merely look on as bombs fall on innocent people, children, the sick, entire cities. Build, do not destroy! Thank you.
[Original Text: Italian]
[Vatican-provided translation]
