Reporting from around the world confirms that youth are using their creativity and energy to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best in many young people.
That may not be the prevailing view in some media, but the World Teenage Reporting Project offers proof that young people around the globe are mobilizing in creative ways to stand up to the virus.
The project has gathered more than 50 stories from newsrooms across the world and provides a peek at what young people are doing to help their communities.
Getting closer to one’s community
In South Florida, third-year North Broward Prep student Noah Galper delivered pizza to Holocaust survivors and elderly couples.
In La Grange, Illinois, third-year high school student Livi Kriha, along with her mother, Darcy, left cards in neighbors’ mailboxes offering to get their groceries, walk their dogs or just give them a friendly phone call.
In southern India, two teenage brothers have coordinated with their mother to distribute meals to people who cannot afford to go to supermarkets.
Youth are becoming new entrepreneurs.
In New Delhi, India, Amity International School student Shivam Mukherjee created a wristband that disinfects any object near the wearer’s hand with UV light and an alcoholic spray.
In Chennai, Shaamil Karim, in his last year at Sishya School, created a “chatbot” software application that answers residents’ questions about locations of testing sites and lockdown restrictions.
In California, fourth-year high school student Audrey Cui coordinated a network of robotics students and amateur hobbyists to 3-D print frames for face shields for medical workers.
Using social media creatively to combat COVID-19
Social media has played an important role in young peoples’ efforts against the pandemic.
The Eagle Eye student newsmagazine at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, chronicled the rise of the #CoronaCant movement that high school and college students from South Florida spearheaded and which offers a platform for videos, songs and posts alleviating the hopelessness that confinement can induce.
Youth reporters at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong documented how two sisters created videos of workout routines for individuals living in cramped quarters, racking up hundreds of views on YouTube.
A third batch of stories in the World Teenage Reporting Project was released on June 4.
Dylan Carlson-Sirvent is an intern at News Decoder. He currently lives in Paris, where he is learning French and taking guitar classes. Carlson-Sirvent will start his university studies at Yale College later this year. He loves reading, playing music and learning languages.