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>Experience of Metta about interreligious dialogue and with the authorities</em></p> <p>I am Metta from Thailand. I am Buddhist. In 1993, I met the youth group of the Focolare Movement called “Gen” in Bangkok. The Idea that those young people promoted and shared to me was very attractive. I was invited to build peace and unity to fulfill Jesus’ final testament: “May they all be one”, right there in the environment where I live, through loving which is essential in the Spirituality of Unity.</p>
<p><em>72 countries have achieved the Millennium Development target of halving proportion of the chronically undernourished.</em></p> <p>The number of hungry people in the world has dropped to 795 million -- 216 million fewer than in 1990-92 -- or around one person out of every nine, according to the latest edition of the annual UN hunger report (<a href="http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/">The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 – SOFI</a>).</p>
<p><em>In Loppiano, the 7th summer course aimed at strengthening relationships of married couples</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>Lack of communication and the incapacity to comprehend the other,</strong> see the positive side of the other person’s diversity, and establish the right distance with the families of origin, are often the causes of the crises, in an individualistic society that does not believe in marriage and the commitment for a long-lasting relationship.</p> <p>The 7<sup>th</sup> edition of the course in Loppiano this year (20-27 June) was organized by the New Families and aimed to strengthen the unity of couples. The course allowed participants to demonstrate willingness to put themselves to the test, together with a deep sharing with the course guides and other families, and avail of the advice of experts that could help dead-end relationships to start anew. With these factors, also the greatest difficulties could be overcome, as was demonstrated by the moving testimonial of unconditional forgiveness<strong> by </strong>a<strong> couple that was reunited after nine years of separation.</strong></p>
<p><em>Experience of Anita Martinez, a young Argentinian</em></p> <p>By the end of 2012 I had an awful experience. I was in a friend’s house with all his family and suddenly three armed and violent men entered their house to rob. They beat us and put us all lying down in the ground of his parents’ room. Then, they started interrogating us and shouting us “where is the money?” with guns in our heads… The father of my friend started saying to one of the thieves that he forgave him, but that was not the way he was supposed to act. The man was getting angry and we were afraid he would do something awful to my friend’s father. Surprisingly, the thief started crying and saying sorry.
<p><em>EXCERPTS FROM THE ADDRESS OF FRANCESCO TO THE POPULAR MOVEMENTS<br />Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) - Thursday, 9 July 2015</em></p> <p>“…Do we truly realize that something is wrong in a world where there are so many farmworkers without land, so many families without a home, so many laborers without rights, so many persons whose dignity is not respected?</p> <p>Do we realize that something is wrong where so many senseless wars are being fought and acts of fratricidal violence are taking place on our very doorstep? Do we realize something is wrong when the soil, water, air and living creatures of our world are under constant threat?</p>
<p><em>Lawyer Flavia Cerino lives in Sicily, Italy, and works in the field of immigration. She is a guardian of minors who travel alone without families.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>“When it comes to migrations, the numbers say more than the words</strong>. In one report published in October 2014, it was estimated that there were 7,124,000,000 people in the world. If the wealth were equally distributed, every person would have a median annual income of 14 thousand USA dollars. In reality, the income of 2,700,000,000 people is two USA dollars per day. Now, this economic inequality, which is a social inequality, has a very strong impact on migration. Entire populations pick up and move toward wealthier countries.”</p>
<p><em>Experience by João Gustavo, a young Brazilian<br /></em></p> <p>Hi, my name is João Gustavo, I’m 28 years old and I’m now living in Italy for one year to work at the International Youth Center of the Focolare Movement.</p> <p>My country occupies almost 50% of the South American territory and it is the largest portughese speaking country in the world. We also have one of the longest river, the Amazon. Because of our vast territory, there is a huge diversity among our people. We have different cultures, customs, cuisines, and music yet we all speak the same language and we call ourselves with one identity, Brazilians.</p>
<p><em>Sir Nicholas Winton, the man known as the "British Oskar Schindler" who saved more than 600 Jewish children from the Holocaust, has died aged 106.</em></p> <p>Sir Nicholas rescued the children in Czechoslovakia at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, organising for British families to take them in instead of letting them be sent to concentration camps.</p> <p>Home Secretary Theresa May called Sir Nicholas, from Pinkneys Green, Maidenhead, “a hero of the 20th century”.</p>
<p><em>Suffering, freedom and fraternity are the central themes of the meeting. It's a dialogue that translates into concrete actions in their own cities. They are received in private audience by Pope Francis.</em></p> <p>Buddhists and Catholics from the United States are holding an interreligious dialogue meeting for the first time near Rome this week, focused on the themes of ‘Suffering, Liberation and Fraternity’. The five day meeting, which opened on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Focolare Movement in Castelgandolfo, Italy, includes 46 Buddhist and Catholic participants from New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.</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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