El grupo de jóvenes, que viaja con motivo de la conmemoración del 200 aniversario de la expedición de Balmis, llega a Santiago de Compostela después de haber estado en Coruña.
The spedition members listened to a motivation speach and made a prayer before resuming their adventure.
On 1th august 2023 Campust Stellae had the honour of hosting the group of partecipants,selected from among the best academic CV, of the Around the World Project. The organisation, led by Jesús Luna Torres, professor at the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Human Motricity at the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the director and writer Carlos Pecker, is made up of a team of professionals, who transmit their experience and rich knowledge through a sustainable and experiential journey in which the young people follow a programme focused on social conflicts: the environment, sustainability, inequality and possible solutions.
This spetixion of 50 young people,from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, aims to pay tribute to the Balmis expedition, led by Spanish physician Francisco Javier Balmis, with the help of his colleague José Salvany and nurse Isabel Zendal. The expedition that set sail from the port of La Coruña on 30 November 1803 achieved a technical feat: keeping the smallpox vaccine active during the transoceanic voyages. This consisted of trasporting the smallpox vaccine so that it would arrive in good condition on the other side of the ocean, which they managed to do and, thanks to this, they saved thousands of lives, both in America and in the Philippines and China. The Round the World Project pays tribute to this expedition by making a route that recalls the places where the first world vaccination began and ended, both in Spain and Portugal: Madrid, Alicante, Catalonia, Navarre, the Basque Country, Galicia, Andalusia and Ceuta; and in Portugal: Lisbon, where Balmis arrived in 1806 after having travelled around the world. The expedition ended in 1810 and this year marks its 200th anniversary.
The group present at Campus Stellae were welcomed by Principal Nuria and Reverend Colin Jonh Patching and a warm buffet, all joining in prayer in the hope of blessing the continuation of the memorial trip which would resume in the next few hours.