The international Jesuit student's conferences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, it is the time that no-one can go outside their home, and the routine has changed. Everything has stopped. Many people are beware of the disease that the pandemic spreads to a lot of people. On the other hand, it is also a good situation for us to share our experiences from a terrible situation right now.

Sophia University, Japan, collaborated with Xavier Learning Community, Thailand, Ateneo De Manila University, Philippine, Mahidol International University, Thailand, and University Kebangsaan Malaysia conducted an educational summer program held by Sophia University. For this program, 154 students and staff joined. We shared about the issue in Southeast Asia and each university showed its campus stories to the other institutions.

In our conference, we had opportunities to share our experiences with our friends who are overseas. In our meeting, there were several topics that each university has shared to the people who participated in these conferences.

For this program, I have the opportunity to meet new friends at our meeting conference using the Zoom application.

I am so happy that I was able to share mine and my friends’ work in the refugee camp with new friends that I met during the conference. They are interested in my work and I am lucky that I learned their ideals and the background of their society. I have to know that many societies have their own issues and everyone needs to solve the issue in better ways. For example, in the Philippines, many Filipino children are short of food and they are still getting the well-educated from the institution or foundation that supports them. And one Malaysian student said that education is quite important for developing people’s lives, and many people can achieve many things through education. For this point, people should help each other and I think that the Covid-19 pandemic is a terrible time but it doesn’t stop us from sharing the dignity to our society that we are staying right now. “Men and Women for Others” is one motto that Jesuit institutions always use with their students. This motto is powerful which can drive the power of the new generation for helping the society that they are growing.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all of the people who participate in this program and share their best experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.