Pope Francis And UNICEF To Work Together In Empowering Young People And The Disadvantaged Children

UNICEF and the Vatican on Tuesday have signed an agreement to work together on empowering youth in different activities around the world, according to Vatican Radio.

Pope Francis has met with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive director Anthony Lake at the Casa Santa Marta to sign the agreement, in collaboration with Scholas Occurentes, an organization launched by Pope Francis that aims to promote and foster peace through education.

The five-year collaboration will primarily focus on helping adolescents, especially the most disadvantaged, to educated.

According to the press release of UNICEF: "The five-year collaboration will focus on expanding the access of more adolescents, especially the most disadvantaged, to technology, sports and the arts - platforms for education, participation and peacebuilding where young people can come together to learn about themselves, each other, and the world around them."

Pope Francis said that he wanted to reform the system of education.

"Scholas would like in some way to combine everyone's efforts for education. It would like to harmoniously reform the educational pact, for only in this way -- if all those in charge of the education of our children and young people work together -- can education change," he said.

The UNICEF and Scholas will collaborate in global activities, such as supporting digital campaigns and social movements for the disadvantaged children.

"UNICEF is excited to support Scholas in its work, and to join our efforts to improve the lives of adolescents," said Lake.

"Adolescence is a pivotal time - an age of risk, but also an age of opportunity. Young people who learn to work together and solve common problems are developing skills that will do more than help them build better futures for themselves. They are developing habits of citizenship that can help them build a better future for the world."