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 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>
<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>
Health, Sport & Ecology
United World Week
Discover Run4Unity 2026, a global race bringing thousands of young people together in the name of peace. From Italy to Uganda, Brazil to Hong Kong, the relay of solidarity and sport forms just one part of United World Week 2026.
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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