“Illness scares me. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It blocks me. I feel like a wall rises around me. I would not know how to manage my emotions if someone I knew were ill. Recently, for example, I’m really afraid for my grandparents. Leonardo’s message has resonated profoundly. What would I do differently now? Listen, listen much more. He told us that, when he was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, all his friends disappeared. Only one remained true. And she listened to him,” explains seventeen-year-old Miranda about her experience with Factor J to the Vita magazine (see: Davanti a un malato siamo tutti a disagio? 100mila studenti allenano l'empatia – in Italian).
We have asked students participating in Project Factor J, a course for Italian schools to help young men and women develop emotional intelligence, respect and empathy towards individuals suffering from illnesses and their families, to express themselves with a video selfie. Here is what Chiara, a student at IIS Pareto, has to say about empthy …
Factor J, promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale with Janssen Italia, is the first Italian school curriculum for educating students to develop emotional intelligence, respect and empathy towards individuals suffering from unease of disease. This is an important social operation to stimulate a change in mentality and culture in the new generations.
