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>The workshop of the Youth for a United World moves into the social projects of the Focolare Movement and of other organizations working to answer the needs of the territory. Interreligious dialogue is the note of the day</em></p> <p>The day dedicated to the festival, inside the international workshop of the Youth for a United World, celebrates diversity as a bridge for dialogue. Those present are joined by Zain, a young Indian journalist, correspondent for Channel News Asia that having learned of this international workshop, decided to come in person to verify the work and the effects of it because "it's important that young people ask themselves how to be generators of dialogue."</p>
<p><em>Young people have dinner in the families of Coimbatore, between the shacks and in living conditions not always easy: worlds come together here to build real bridges of understanding and solidarity. A lot of literacy projects and assistance to sick young people<br /></em></p> <p>Today is the day of "Flavour". We start by sharing traditional Indian dishes and with food we share our experiences, valuing cultural differences as opportunities for intense sharing.</p> <p>Marilù, for example, tells us that, after being born and raised in Italy, she is in India for about 30 years. When she talks about her experience, her eyes shine in a particular way.
<p><em><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Al via il terzo cantiere internazionale per i Giovani per un mondo unito dei Focolari a Mumbai, in occasione della Settimana mondo unito 2015. Si condivide la sospensione dei giovani nepalesi presenti all'incontro, che hanno visto dalle televisioni il loro Paese distrutto e le famiglie">The <a href="http://www.uww2015.com/index.php">third international workshop</a> of the Youth for a United World of the Focolare Movement has been launched in Mumbai, at the United World Week 2015. We share the suspension of <span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Al via il terzo cantiere internazionale per i Giovani per un mondo unito dei Focolari a Mumbai, in occasione della Settimana mondo unito 2015. Si condivide la sospensione dei giovani nepalesi presenti all'incontro, che hanno visto dalle televisioni il loro Paese distrutto e le famiglie">Nepalis </span></span>young people attended the meeting, which saw on television their country destroyed and the families </span><span title="sfollate ">displaced</span></span></em></p> <p><strong></strong><span id="result_box" lang="en"><span title=""Fabric, Flavour, Festival... discovering fraternity", (Festival di tessuti e di sapori, alla scoperta della fraternità)."><strong>"Fabric, Flavour, Festival ... discovering fraternity"</strong>. </span><span title="È questo il titolo scelto, assieme ad una grafica accattivante, per la terza tappa del cantiere internazionale dei giovani dei Focolari inserito nello United World Project.">This is the title chosen, along with an attractive graphic, for the third step of the international workshop of the young people from the Focolare, inside the <strong>United World Project</strong>. The location of </span><span title="Sede del 2015 è l’India.">2015 is India. </span><span title="Sono oltre 120 i giovani presenti e 25 i Paesi rappresentati.">More than 120 young people present and 25 countries represented. </span><span title="Si va dal Giappone all'Italia, dalla Corea alla Colombia, dal Nepal alla Romania: un laboratorio mondiale che, nell'ambito della Settimana Mondo Unito, testimonia quanto le differenze culturali e religiose non siano un ostacolo nel dialogo tra i popoli, ma rappresentino">From Japan to Italy, from Korea to Colombia, from Nepal to Romania: a global laboratory that, as part of the <strong>United World Week</strong>, shows that cultural and religious differences are not an obstacle to dialogue between peoples, but act as a</span><span title="un trampolino di lancio per un mondo più unito e fraterno, come scritto proprio nel titolo. "> springboard for a more united and fraternal world, as written right in the title.</span></span></p>
<p><em>High-Level Thematic Debate on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation, promoted by top members of the United Nations, gained momentum during a panel discussion, moderated by BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan: the role of religions in today’s world</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>What are the religions in today’s world? </strong>Many see them as obstacles to peace, the residue of ages past that today are the cause of violent extremism. What would the world really be more peaceful without the religions? The High-Level Thematic Debate on Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation suddenly became animated. The second day of the UN meeting offered some directives.</p>
<p><em>An exemplary measure in a country where acts of sexual violence are unfortunately common</em></p> <p>An ethnic armed group from Manipur, Northeast India, the Kuki National Organization (KNO), affirmed its policy to strictly prohibit and punish any act of sexual violence perpetrated by its members. It made its commitment concrete by signing Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment prohibiting sexual violence and against gender discrimination on 22 March 2015.
<p><em>The speech by the Focolare Movement’s president, Maria Voce at the High-Level Thematic Debate on “Promoting Tolerance and Reconciliation”</em></p> <p><strong>To risk your own life so as to relieve the suffering of the poor</strong>. This was Maria Voce’s invitation as she spoke of the last terrible phase of the Second World War, when in 1943 “a group of young women got together in the small city of Trent in northern Italy. While their city was being bombed, those young people, who were guided by a young teacher named Chiara Lubich, and urged on by a new understanding of the radical nature of Gospel love, decided to risk their lives to relieve the suffering of the poor.”</p>
<p><em>Denying the fundamental right of seeking assistance is tantamount to denying democracy and dignity of the person</em></p> <p>“The Mediterranean must become a humanitarian channel”, said to MISNA Monsignor Giancarlo Perego, director of the Migrantes Foundation, after a migrant boat capsized over the weekend leaving hundreds feared dead off of Libya’s coasts. A first focus must be immediately ensuring adequate search and rescue efforts, not only from Italy, but a European coordination. Monsignor Perego stressed that the necessary funds are available and migrants rights to seek help must be guaranteed, at all costs, without “distinction”.</p>
<p><em>A live recount of the tragedy in Garissa, Kenya. Sharing pain, bringing relief to relatives of murdered students. Solidarity born of tragedy.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>”The slaughter in Garissa took place on Good Friday.</strong> I went to the morgue where they were taking the bodies of the students for identification, not far from my home in Nairobi. I took my camera along. It was impossible not to hear the sirens. I found the parents of the murdered students fainting on one side. . . and on ther other my colleagues with news cameras. I could certainly have shot a few interviews, but I just couldn’t do it; I found myself weeping with the families.
<p><em>In Florence (Italy) a “Bed and Breakfast” accommodations project. One of the many initiatives launched by the worldwide New Families of the Focolare, to help those in need.</em></p> <p><strong>Cesar, an 18-year old from Ghana, was saved just when he was about to drown</strong>, after he had drunk water and fuel. On that journey, 72 people were saved while 32 died. <strong>Maria, a Nigerian and seven months pregnant, </strong><strong>had </strong>received a phone call from her father while she was out with her husband and little son. He told them not to return home because the church had been burnt and her mother killed. <strong>They escaped with the little they had, and arrived in Libya</strong>. They had money for the journey to Italy of just one person, and so only she left. Her husband and little son remained on the other side of the Mediterranean, waiting for another embarkment.</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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