Medical School collaborates with GC School of Careers to promote health literacy among adolescents

As part of its ongoing commitment to promoting health literacy, the Medical School carried out a project in collaboration with GC School of Careers in Nicosia to raise awareness among adolescents on key public health topics.

Initiated by Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology Zoi Dorothea Pana, the project aimed to enhance awareness on infection control, vaccine research and vaccination, and promote critical thinking about health information and misinformation.

The project began with the distribution of an educational comic book called ‘Saving Lives’ to GC School students aged 11-13. Developed by Belgian Professor Pierre Van Damme, Director of the EU Vaccine Hub, and founder of VACCINOPOLIS, the comic creatively explores themes of infection prevention, vaccine literacy, and the fight against misinformation in an engaging, age-appropriate format.

Following this, the UNIC Medical School team comprising Ms Antonia Mourou, Mr Andreas Strovolides and Prof Zoi Dorothea Pana, conducted four interactive workshops over two days, integrating drama-based learning and gamification techniques to foster participation and reinforce learning outcomes. Each workshop engaged around 20 students, encouraging curiosity, collaboration, and reflection on real-world health challenges.

In a statement, Prof Pana said: ‘This pilot demonstrated the University of Nicosia Medical School’s strong capacity to engage with the community through innovative, evidence-based educational outreach. It highlights the importance of early public health literacy and the value of multidisciplinary collaboration in fostering future-informed citizens’. ‘We would like to thank the GC School of Careers for opening its doors to us and allowing our team to engage directly with their students. Their openness and enthusiasm made this project both impactful and rewarding’, she added.

On her part, Ms Maria Chrysanthou, Educational Lead at GC School, conveyed strong enthusiasm for the collaboration and expressed interest in expanding the initiative, to cover additional topics such as One Health, Planetary Health, inclusion, and diversity.

‘I really enjoyed learning about vaccines, and I like that we got the opportunity to play out different roles and share our opinions’.

Efrosyni

‘I really liked this experience, as it’s not something we get to do every day. We learnt about vaccines and discovered that a lot of different professionals are involved in creating them’.

Stefanos

‘We learnt about vaccines, how they can contribute to people’s health and the fight against viruses. This is an experience that will stay with us’.

Alexandros

‘I really enjoyed today’s workshop because we understood how vaccines work, how they are made, and by whom they are made. It was a very enjoyable experience’.

Anthia Maria

‘Today, I learnt that many steps are required before a vaccine is developed and that people from various specialties need to work together for its development, approval and distribution. I really liked that this was an interactive workshop and that each person had its role and team’.

Omiros

L-R: Maria Chrysanthou, Antonia Mourou, Zoe Dorothea Pana, Andreas Strovolides