His Holiness Pope Tawadros II received today, Tuesday, at the Papal Residence in Cairo, Mark Mourad, his sister Karen, and their family. The siblings, who are visually impaired, have an inspiring experience in developing an innovative solution to assist visually impaired people through a smart application called “Scribe Me.” Powered by artificial intelligence, the application integrates with smartphones and Meta smart glasses to describe the surrounding world in real time, helping enhance users’ independence and ability to interact with their surroundings.

During the meeting, His Holiness listened to their story and personal experience and learned about what inspired them to develop the application. He expressed his appreciation for the inspiring example set by Mark and Karen, demonstrating how challenges can be transformed into opportunities for innovation and service. His Holiness commended their determination to draw on their personal experience to develop a technological solution that benefits others and encouraged them to continue along this path. He was also keen to learn about the concept behind the innovation and how it works.

His Holiness invited Mark and Karen to participate in the LOGOS Coptic Youth Forum next summer, where they can present their experience to young people and share the story of their journey, the challenges they have faced, and how they transformed their personal experience into an innovative idea that serves others. Their story can serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement for young people to discover their potential and use it in service to society.

His Holiness emphasized the importance of harnessing science, technology, and innovation to serve people, particularly persons with disabilities, and of creating more opportunities that enable their full and effective participation in society.

He also encouraged the siblings to continue their journey and mission of service, emphasizing that the true value of knowledge is revealed when it is transformed into something that benefits and serves others.

His Holiness had previously honored Mark in July 2024 after he developed an AI-powered program that helps visually impaired people read PowerPoint slides and interpret images in detail. The program can also extract text from images and convert it into readable text, enabling visually impaired users to access the content more easily. The program has helped visually impaired people in 25 countries.

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