On April 22nd (Mother Earth Day) we had the wonderful opportunity to bring together several schools from our global community to share on the topic “Lasting Relationships with the Earth and all of Creation”.

As students of today, builders of the present and the future, we often feel deeply dissatisfied with the dynamics that society has built, in how the earth, our common home, and all her inhabitants are treated. As the youth of this world, we are sensitive and close to the realities of an interconnected world, a world into which we were born, aware of the power that our life and actions can have. Our hearts call us to take action and to build deep and lasting relationships with earth and all of creation through simplicity, love, and justice.” Caring for Our Common Home: An Ignatian Framework – Ecology Taskforce of the Secretariat of Education

It was great to see all the students connecting and sharing with one another on the many activities their schools are engaged in to improve  and deepen their relationship with Mother Earth.  Over 20 students from five different countries had the chance to share and learn about the different actions other schools are taking to build deep and lasting relationships with the Earth. The schools that participated were:

• Ateneo de Naga Grade School and High School, Philippines
• St Aloysius Gonzaga School, Mangaluru, India
• Colegio Inmaculada, Gijón, Spain
• Istituto Massimo, Italia 
• Xavier School, Gamharia, India
• St George’s College, Zimbabwe

Many activities were shared, from engagement with organizations like Green Peace and activities to create awareness towards the importance of Caring for Our Common Home to initiatives involving the entire school community such as recycling, composting, cleaning, and limiting the use of polluting materials, among others.

Below we share a video summary of the session, and you can also find here the slide decks shared by some of the participating schools during the live session.

We are very grateful to the students and educators who joined us in this session and did such an amazing job at preparing and sharing all these important and interesting initiatives.

It is inspiring and encouraging to see students so interested and involved in these activities all around the world! A special thanks to Arthur Garande from St. George’s College in Zimbabwe for facilitating the online session.