Stories from around the globe show how a united world is already in motion. This platform highlights experiences, initiatives, and projects from people and communities working for unity and peace. Explore what’s happening and get inspired.
<p>With the ratification by Norway, following a similar action by Niger, of the International Labour Organization (<a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/">ILO</a>) protocol on forced labour, a significant step has been taken towards ending the scourge, as the agency’s binding instruments generally provide that an adopted protocol only comes into force 12 months after being ratified by two member States.</p> <p>“Norway’s ratification will help millions of children, women and men reclaim their freedom and dignity. It represents a strong call to other member States to renew their commitment to protect forced labourers, where ever they may be,” <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_426566/lang--en/index.htm">said</a> ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a news release.
<p><em>Europe, the Far East and a common denominator: the ability of the young to try something new in favour of two burning issues: ecumenism and peace.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong><strong>There is a festive atmosphere in Reșița, </strong>Romania, a Municipality located on the border with Serbia, population around 90,000.<br /> </strong></p> <p>The first young people began to arrive yesterday evening from Italy, Catholic youth who were welcomed at an official ceremony in the most ancient Orthodox church in the city, and they were offered hospitality in the homes of their Romanian peers. Today the Orthodox youth arrive: some by bus, some by car and some on foot. The Municipal Administration held a moment of greeting before the party moved on to Băile Herculane, a tourist town in the southwest of the country where an ecumenical camp will be held. The vice-mayor was pleased and expressed congratulations for the experience of twinning between the Romanian Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and the Roman Catholic parish of Santa Maria de Borgo in Pesaro, Italy, which has been established for eight years.</p>
<div><em>Margaret Karram, an Arab-Palestinian focolarina comments on Pope Francis’s message for the 2016 World Day of Peace.</em></div> <p><strong><a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/messages/peace/documents/papa-francesco_20151208_messaggio-xlix-giornata-mondiale-pace-2016.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a></strong><strong>The message of Pope Francis in this Jubilee Year of Mercy urges us more than ever to live the immense gift of Peace.</strong> It is a strong plea that shakes our conscience and invites us to convert ourselves. Peace and Mercy: two inseparable elements for coexistence among people and with all Creation, and two words which we have become more aware of today, now that they are absent. A piece of the papal message brought me back to my homeland. <strong>It is really moving for me – an Arab-Catholic of Palestinian origin –</strong> to study Jesus’ behaviour following the motto, “Overcome indifference and achieve Peace.” In retracing those places, I can affirm that He lived as a Person and narrated divine parables taken from daily life.</p>
<p><em>Bestowing each other with one’s heritage of life and concepts on the Holy Spirit: the objective of the symposium held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.</em></p> <p><strong></strong>Already in 2004, getting to know each other, establishing dialogue and intensifying the spirit of communion were the objectives that had pushed the <strong>Orthodox Faculty of Theology of University Babeş – Bolyai of Cluj-Napoca</strong> and the members of the Focolare Movement to start a fruitful spiritual exchange of ideas and experiences. With time, this relationship was enriched by an ecumenical course that led to a dialogue at a theological level especially in recent years. In the common desire to bring Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity to Orthodox theology, this year both parties agreed to foster joint activities between the Romanian Faculty and the Sophia University Institute (SUI) in Loppiano (Florence), in a Symposium between the two academic institutions in Cluj-Napoca from 26 to 28 November.</p>
<p>E se invece di persone in fuga, si muovessero i beni?</p> <p>Non per espansioni commerciali, speculazioni, traffici, conquiste … No.<br />Ma perché sono beni dell’unica famiglia umana.</p> <p>Beni comuni da gestire con la partecipazione di chi abita le terre in cui i beni esistono o sono prodotti, da trattare nel rispetto dell’ambiente, da destinare a chi ne ha reale bisogno.</p>
<p><em>The Economy of Communion (EoC) Project lands in Central America, raising curiosity amongst business owners who are searching for values that can humanise work and production. The testimony of one architect.</em></p>
<p>Persecution, conflict and poverty have forced an unprecedented one million people to flee to Europe in 2015, according to estimates by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, IOM.</p> <p>As of 21 December, some 972,500 had crossed the Mediterranean Sea, according to UNHCR figures. In addition, IOM estimates that over 34,000 have crossed from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land.</p> <p>The number of people displaced by war and conflict is the highest seen in Western and Central Europe since the 1990s, when several conflicts broke out in the former Yugoslavia.</p>
<p><em>Helping the youth to develop their awareness in choosing the good? The good practices of the Igbarian “Fraternity” school in Nigeria.</em></p> <p><strong></strong>Education is one of the most important challenges the Nigerian schooling system has to face, and where at times Nigerian society has to deal with aggressive behavior and religious traditions that imbue fear and a sense of helplessness in the face of evil.</p> <p>“One day,” <strong>Christiane recounts,</strong> ” a mother stopped bringing her daughter to school because we had asked the parents to cut the hair of the children who were about to start the first year of nursery school. She said that someone who was believed to be in contact with spirits had told her that her daughter would die if she cut her hair. And this explained why the child no longer went to school.”</p>
<p><em>A land of varying dangers. One day it’s calm; and the next day bombs are falling. Young people from the Focolare prepare for Christmas, going from home to home, sharing and bringing hope.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>“The life of each day varies, because the danger varies. </strong>On some days nothing happens, and you could even forget that there was a war. On other days you could be on your way to work and get hit by stray bullets, or walk into a battle, or under falling bombs in the middle of a civilian area,” Pascal reports. He has been living in a focolare in Syria for several years. <strong><br /></strong></p>
Dialogue & Interculture
New Humanity NGO presented the M.E.D.I.T.erraNEW project — co-financed by the Erasmus Plus Program — to the Youth Section of UNESCO in Paris.
Peace & Human Rights
Amid the rubble of Syria, art becomes an act of resistance. Discover the story of Aeham Ahmad, the “The Pianist of Yarmouk”, who defied the horror of war with the invincible beauty of his musical notes.
Operation Mato Grosso is working on over 100 missions across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, all rooted in education, hard work, and solidarity. Jacopo Manara, who has been a volunteer for years, tells us their story.
An interview on communication with Michele Zanzucchi, journalist and writer, former director of Città Nuova, professor of communication at Sophia University Institute and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and author of around forty books.
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