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>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>
<p><em>Experience of Abraham, young Mexican<br /></em></p> <p>Hello, my name is Abraham and I come from Mexico, which is a country of noble people and great faith, a people with arms open to the world.</p> <p>Today we are livingin a difficult situation.The fight against drug trafficking began in 2006, a war that in eight years has killed more peoplethan the Vietnam War. All these people are not just criminals, sometimes they are innocent journalists, activists, and others.</p>
<p><em>World Refugee Day<br /></em></p> <p><em></em>"It is necessary to respond to the globalization of migration with the globalization of charity and cooperation, in such a way as to make the conditions of migrants more humane. At the same time, greater efforts are needed to guarantee the easing of conditions, often brought about by war or famine, which compel whole peoples to leave their native countries.</p>
<p><em><em>In the face of deforestation issues, Raimundo and Edilene, with other families were able to create in the heart of the Amazon forest, an area that preserves local biodiversity, in line with the <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html" target="blank"><i>“Laudato Si” document</i></a>, the encyclical letter of Pope Francis on care for our common home.</em><br /></em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>Raimundo is a hairdresser and Edilene, an anesthetist and public administration clerk. So to take interest in the environment </strong>is not exactly their line of expertise. But in the face of the environmental and cultural invasion they are undergoing, together with other families with whom they share Christian ideals, they started to pose some questions to themselves. What heritage would we be leaving to our children? How can we diffuse our vision to a society that seems to be unaware of this destruction? How can we go against the current?</p>
<p><em><em>Like every year, in early May the Youth for a United World all over the world have made a lot of activities and initiatives within the United World Week. Below you find the last fragments (others at these links: <a href="http://unitedworldproject.org/it/home/14-notizie/766-qualche-stralcio-dalla-settimana-mondo-unito-2015-nel-mondo.html">1</a> - <a href="http://unitedworldproject.org/it/home/14-notizie/770-qualche-altro-frammento-dalla-settimana-mondo-unito-2015.html">2</a> - <a href="en/home/10-news/776-other-fragments-from-the-united-world-week-2015.html">3</a></em> - <a href="en/home/10-news/783-going-on-with-other-fragments-from-the-united-world-week-2015.html">4</a>).</em></p> <p><strong>India.</strong> As we know, in Mumbai and Coimbatore there was the central event of UWW 2015. "Fabric, Flavour, Festival - Discovering fraternity", with more than 170 young people from 16 countries. Different cultures and pretty much all the great religions (Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists) and many languages, with the participation of the Rissho Kosei-kai from Japan and the great collaboration of the Shanti Ashram. From there we also launched a worldwide fundraising for Nepal. Photos at this <a href="http://www.uww2015.com/gallery.html?section=">link</a></p>
<p><em>Meeting people of other religions personally helps you understand their cultures and traditions and is the best remedy against prejudices. Here are three examples of how to dial up the interreligious dialogue in everyday life.</em></p> <p><strong>Coping with anti-Muslim sentiment</strong><br />Recently there was an incident in my school when a second grader drew a picture of an armored tank directed toward the school, and on it he wrote: “My plan to blow up the school.” There had also been several previous episodes when he talked about killing non-Muslims that were troubling for us in the school administration.<br /> Sam has been struggling with his own developmental issues, but complicating things for him were the summer he spent with his family in Palestine and the recent violence reported in the media, including the anti-Muslim backlash after the Charlie Hebdo murders in France.</p>
Economy & Work
Thirty-five years ago a dream was born: the Economy of Communion. In late May Argentina will host an extraordinary celebration where people of all ages will come together to breathe new life into this project and write the future for a different kind of economy.
Lorna Gold, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement, reflects on ten years of the encyclical, analysing how integral ecology is an essential path to global unity and tackling the climate crisis.
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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