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>Reconciliation and recovery are the huge tasks facing the Central African Republic’s new President Faustin-Archange Touadera, named the winner of a run-off election that it is hoped will turn the page on years of violent turmoil.</p> <p>Former prime minister Touadera won 62.71 percent of votes cast in the Feb. 14 election, according to provisional results announced by the National Elections Authority (ANE).</p> <p>His defeated rival Anicet Dologuele, also an ex-premier, topped the first round. He says he will accept the results for the sake of peace, despite what he called “massive fraud” in the latest ballot.</p>
<p><em>In the face of the controversial attitudes towards the numerous refugees arriving in Europe, the welcoming gesture of an Italian clerk who offered what he had to make friends, as the Word of Life invites us to do in the month of February.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>“I am a clerk and I live in Catanzaro.</strong> While participating in a meeting with friends who are committed to social work, I got to know that some young foreigners living in a centre for refugees, needed bicycles to go to work.</p> <p><strong>I remembered that in my garage there were two mountain bikes, still in good condition. These bikes meant a lot to me, </strong>since they reminded me of the many long mountain excursions I had with my son. Without hesitating I raised my hand to offer them. But to have them brought to the destination, there some difficulties to overcome. Sometime later I found out that these friends had organised for the end of January, a three-day convention in a touristic village near the residence of the refugees, and in which I was invited to participate.</p>
<div><em>A profession chosen out of love: 400 workers in the field of education and youth, from 39 countries, united by their dedication to the new generations. A difficult task? Yes, but possible when we do it together.</em></div> <p><strong></strong><strong>There was overwhelming agreement amongst the 400 youth workers</strong> who attended the conference, that they had chosen their profession because of love and not because of the career. Some of the topics discussed included: <strong>accompanying adolescents; </strong>role of the teacher; educating to do what is difficult; the community as educator. Vince and Make are from Melbourne, Australia. “I’m originally from Futuna – one more step and you fall off the globe!” Make joked. “When I went to visit a small community on the Island of Kiribati, the children were surprised by the presence of a stranger, and then suprised by the fact that I played games with them. I ran for two hours even though I’m no longer the right age that. We didn’t speak the same language, but a special relationship was created between us.</p>
<h1>News from the last European council...</h1> <p>Agenda highlights<br />The European Council focus on two main issues:</p> <h2>United Kingdom</h2> <p>Following the discussion at the December 2015 European Council on the UK plans for an (in/out) referendum, the European Council agreed to find mutually satisfactory solutions in four areas of concern at its February meeting:</p> <ul> <li>competitiveness</li> <li>economic governance</li> <li>sovereignty</li> <li>social benefits and free movement</li> </ul>
<p><em>The last months of 2015 will go down in the history of Paraguay as the epoch in which the youth revived its leading and ongoing role in civic actions. The story of the Focolare youth’s commitment.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>Thousands of university students have denounced the rampaging corruption in the country’s main state university</strong>, the Università Nazionale of Asunción (UNA). A long austere spring ended with chain resignations of the academic authorities, and negotiations on the reforms of a statute drafted during the dictatorship.</p> <p><strong>The university youth surprised </strong><strong>everyone with their seriousness and organisation</strong><strong>.</strong> In the month in which the campus was occupied, they created a true and proper “alternative State.”</p>
<p><em>During the Year of Mercy, the commitment of a focolarino and 30 volunteers from the Sempre Persona (Always a Person) project at the Rebibbia Prison on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. It all began with a request for forgiveness.</em></p> <p><strong>“I was still a child</strong>,” <strong>Alfonso from the class of 1945 recounts, “when my father was unjustly imprisoned.</strong> My mother and I would visit him in prison and, at such a tender age I realised how lonely the inmates were: people without hope or future – and without dignity. So, I promised myself that one day I would do something for them.”</p> <p><strong>Alfonso had to wait for that chance.</strong> He enrolled in a course on volunteering and obtained permission to make visits to Rebibbia Prison, which currently has 1,700 inmates. They are serving time for the most varied crimes: drug dealing, sex abuse, mafia activity, extortion, murder, and more. Alfonso was aware that his efforts would be limited by the distrust of the inmates who belived they had lost any chance at redemption. In fact, many of them refused to let him approach. But he never gave up because he was convinced they were the image of the God he had chosen when he became a focolarino.</p>
<p><em>A visit to “the Voice School of English” in Malta: one of the very first EoC businesses distinguishes itself by giving priority to the relationship with students<em></em></em></p> <p>Coming down from the bus we immediately spot ““The Voice School of English”, situated in Pembroke, a few metres away the sea. The modern and spacious Malta National Sports School houses the Voice during the summer months. Andy, who co-ordinates the students’ visit to Malta, greets us with a big smile. She does not only know all the students by name, as actually all the teachers do, but she makes it a point to see that they receive the care and attention needed, while she works very closely even with the host families to ensure the comfort and well-being of each student.</p>
<p>With the US and Russia leading the way the international partners along with the Syrians and groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, meeting in Munich, have announced a cessation of hostilities in Syria within a week, the first in five years of civil war. The intention is to fully implement the existing UN resolution on Syria.</p> <p>It has a dual purpose; to allow UN-monitored humanitarian aid to all areas cut off and under siege, and to give time for a full resumption of stalled Geneva peace talks.</p> <p>John Kerry said the plight of ordinary Syrians had driven the talks.</p>
<p>On the eve of scheduled intra-Syrian talks in Geneva to seek an end to five years of internecine fighting, the top United Nations official for the war-torn country took to the airwaves today to speak directly to the Syrian people, vowing that the world Organization will never abandon them.</p> <p>“My message today is meant to reach every single man, woman, child of Syria, inside Syria and outside, in the refugee camps, or wherever you are,” Special UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said in a video recording.</p>
Dialogue & Interculture
United World Week
Every year, from May 1st to 7th, the United World Project support, together with the Focolare Movement and Youth for a United World (Y4UW), the United World Week, a global action where many people promote events and initiatives worldwide to foster dialogue, unity, and peace.
Dialogue & Interculture
Dialogue & Interculture
Dialogue & Interculture
United World Week
Here’s the key: knowing that we do not know. No one possesses the absolute Truth, and by engaging in dialogue with everyone we can grasp aspects or fragments of truth that help us reassemble a shattered vase that we can restore only if we are “together”.
Economy & Work
Anna Granata, professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca, reminds us that teaching peace is not an abstract utopia. It is something that happens every day in Italian classrooms among children with diverse stories, languages, and backgrounds.
Art & Social Commitment
Celebrated Marvel and DC artist Gabriele Dell’Otto invites us to consider the people who are working to build peace as the real superheroes of our world. A profound discussion on responsibility, citizenship, and the challenge of doing the extraordinary in our everyday lives.
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