by Paolo Balduzzi

United World Week was held from 1 to 7 May, a global workshop and expo of initiatives to restore peace and fraternity between people and peoples.

From 1 to 7 May the United World Week (UWW) was held, this year focusing its global commitment on peace sought and built from multiple angles: caring for the poorest, the excluded, caring for the environment, shaping consciences, peace education. This year’s motto was ‘Embrace Humanity, Spark Change’; a starting point and inspiration for many initiatives taking place in various cities around the world.

UWW 2024, international Genfest

The international opening event of the UWW was held on 1 May in Loppiano (Florence-Italy), two months before the Genfest, the global festival of fraternity promoted by the young people of the Focolare Movement that will be held in Aparecida, Brazil, next July, with the commitment of many Focolare communities around the world that, in a network with Organisations, Movements and Institutions, are committed in local contexts to respond to the needs and challenges most needed for a given territory.

The ‘change’ that the young people of the Focolare Movement together with their communities want to promote is concentrated in the areas of the world most devastated by war, environmental impact and forced migration.

The protagonists of UWW

Among these young people is Giacomo, Italian, who left for Kenya thanks to the MilONGa international volunteer project, where he worked in some orphanages in Nairobi. Or Daphne, from India, who recounts the adventure of Reach Out, the project set up in Goregaon, a suburb of East Mumbai, by some local young people to support about 70 families in poverty. Icaro, Sam and David, on the other hand, live in Brazil, in Fortaleza, where they are doing voluntary work in the ‘Condominio Spirituale Uirapuru’ (CEU), a campus where 21 associations work to care for needy children, people with HIV and drug addicts.

These are just some of the stories presented during the opening event, but the week was studded with events and initiatives, with even more stories involving different generations: our next newsletter, to be published at the end of May, will tell all of this.