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><em>While the Mediterranean tragedy of people escaping from war and hunger continues, in a mountain municipality in northern Italy, the hospitality offered to migrants turns into a revival of the community and the region.</em></p> <p><strong><strong>Five years ago, the town was classified as having one of the lowest socio-economic communities in the Piemonte region</strong>. </strong>But the entire community learned about hospitality towards others and today, 30 refugees, almost all Africans, besides a family from Kosovo with three children, have been living for eight months now, in a housing unit owned by the Cottolengo Institute.</p>
<p><em>After two days of intense talks North and South Korea have reached an agreement on ending their stand off which had pushed the peninsula into a state of heightened military tension.</em></p> <p>“The crisis began after landmine explosions wounded South Korean troops. Seoul responded by broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.</p> <p>In a statement South Korea’s Chief of National Security said : North Korea has expressed regret over a recent landmine incident on the South’s side of the Demilitarized Zone along the Military Demarcation Line that wounded South Korean soldiers. South Korea has agreed to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts. And the North has agreed to end its ‘semi-state of war’.”</p>
<p><em>Carmen, a volunteer worker at the jailhouse in the eastern region of the Caribbean Island, recounts her meeting with the «poorest among the poor.» The power of the Word.</em></p> <p><strong>“</strong><strong>Since 1994</strong> <strong>I have worked in the Pastoral Jail of the Archdiocese of Santiago </strong>in Cuba which also includes the city of Guantanamo. Together with other volunteers we see to their needs and those of their relatives, because these people are <strong>really the poorest among the poor</strong>.</p>
<p><em>70 years ago, with the launch of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945), the world entered the nuclear age: for the first time in history, mankind acquired the ability to destroy itself (in the pic, the sky above Hiroshima after the explosion of the bomb).</em></p> <p>Though he try fiendishly and implacably, it is not given to man to destroy mankind. It was God Who brought the human race into being; it is His Providence, and not man’s passion for tearing down, that will bring mankind’s earthly sojourn to an end.</p> <p>But man can embark on a course of destruction; he can harness the forces of nature by the keenness of his God-given intelligence and the skill of his God-given hands, and he can unloose those forces not for the beneficent ends that God wills, but for the purpose of ruin, destruction and chaos.</p>
<p><em>The first anniversary of the ISIS invasion of the Nineveh Plains, the Catholic Church promotes a series of prayer vigils in Fheis. A moment of relief amidst tragedy.</em></p> <p><strong>On August 7, 2015, the Catholic Church in Jordan held a prayer vigil</strong> to commemorate last year’s tragic events that displaced more than 100,000 Christians.</p> <p><strong><strong></strong></strong>More than 2000 faithful, the majority Iraqi refugees, held a solemn prayer vigil steeped in pain, at the church square of Fuheis.
<p><em>Italy has finally promulgated a law dedicated to autism, inserting it among the essential levels of assistance for treatment. Federico De Rosa is autistic. At the age of eight he learned to write with the computer. His story talks about autism from the viewpoint of those suffering from it.</em></p> <p><em></em>“<strong>I dream a lot and often.</strong> A recurring dream is that of a sunny day in which my sentiments and thoughts flow freely in a surge of words for all my friends. What a joy it is to be able to speak!”</p> <p>Federico does not speak, even if he knows that communication does not only come about through language. The first symptoms were already evident at the first year of age. The more he grew the more his capacity to interact with reality diminished. At the age of three came the diagnosis. He was totally incapable of communicating, and was suffering from the strongest forms of generalised disorders in development, a very serious disorder that could be traced to the extensive and varied universe of autism.</p>
<p><em><span id="result_box" lang="it"><span title="One teacher's way to reconciliation in troubled Baltimore ">One teacher’s way to reconciliation in troubled Baltimore</span></span></em></p> <p><span id="result_box" lang="it"><span title="I have been in a Baltimore City Public School for the past 10 years teaching students with special needs."></span><span title="In some cases a father figure is absent. ">I have been in a Baltimore City Public School for the past 10 years teaching students with special needs. Many come from poverty and drug-stricken areas. The majority of the children are raised by their grandmothers or single mothers. In some cases a father figure is absent.</span></span></p> <p>A few months ago a part of the city was engulfed in fire as protestors showed their anger over the death of Freddie Gray, a young black man who was injured while being detained by police and who later fell into a coma and died. Stores were burned; bricks and rocks were thrown at the police, whom they held responsible for Gray’s death.</p>
<p><em>The Island will soon welcome the first Latin American Pope. The expectation of the people, State-Church relations and the thawing in Cuban-USA relations. Message from the bishops and the Focolare’s contribution.</em></p> <p><strong></strong>There is much expectation on the island for the upcoming visit of the first Latin-American-born Pope, planned for September 19-23, 2015. The expectation is certainly expressed in a wide variety of ways depending on the conscience and awareness of who and what the Pope represents. If you ask the people on the street you get all types of responses: “I think we are dealing with a great human being; I’m hoping he’ll feel at home amongst us;” Let’s hope that he brings beneficial changes for the people;” “It seems like a dream! We feel privileged;” “It’s a blessing for this small people of great heart to welcome three Popes in only 13 years.” Indeed, only Cuba and Brazil can make this claim. Many Cubans are of the same opinion and do not hide their pride over the third visit of a Pontiff – both believers and non.</p>
<div><em>They wanted to massacre everyone and burn the place to the ground. But after listening and being heard something changed.</em></div> <p><strong></strong><strong>Geneva, Switzerland, <em>Rue de Montbrillant, n. 3. </em></strong> Like every other Friday I go to <em>Jardin de Montbrillant, </em>a welcome centre for needy people in this cosmopolitan city where you can have a free hot meal. Today, as always, at noontime, we welcome around 150 people of every nationality.</p> <p>The room is already full and everything is going fine.
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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