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>About 300 people - including Hindus, Muslims and some Christians - will celebrate the birth of Christ at Swarga Dwar, Mumbai, an ashram founded by PIME. The days leading up to the celebration are special for its children who play cricket, football and other games. "The kids wait for this festival with joy. They like to prepare the tree and put the star on the crèche," the facility's head said.</em></p> <p>Mumbai - "At Swarga Dwar, Christmas is an important day. We bear witness to Jesus before our guests and friends, who are mostly Hindus and Muslims. And his message becomes theirs," said Fr Vijay Rayala, regional superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in India, as he talks about the Heaven's Gate ashram, a residence and rehabilitation centre in Mumbai for people with leprosy founded in 1983 by Fr Carlo Torriani, also a PIME missionary.</p>
<p><em>Obama, Raul Castro thank Pope Francis for mediation</em></p> <p> New York, December 17 - United States President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro on Wednesday announced an historic thaw in relations between the two countries.</p> <p>"We will start to normalise our relations with Cuba," Obama said in a television address.</p> <p>"We'll put an end to this outdated approach to Cuba... I have given Secretary of State John Kerry the mandate to launch immediate negotiations to revive the dialogue that stopped in 1961...
<p><em>On the International Human Rights Day, the manifesto signed by the UNIRedes organisations promotes action for a more fraternal and more socially united world.</em></p> <p><strong>«<strong>64 years after the institution of the International Human Rights Day</strong></strong> [10 December] and of the appeal to “all peoples of the world” launched by the United Nations General Assembly,” we, the members of UNIRedes, wish to make public our constitution on the network, in order to foster authentic partnership relations, and build a more just and fraternal world, in pursuit of total respect for human rights.» These were the opening lines of the “Manifesto” signed on the occasion of the International Day of Human Rights, by over 50 social organisations, initiatives and movements of 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries involved in UNIRedes.</p>
<p><em>No one should become an accomplice in "man's exploitation by man," an activity that touches millions of people forced by violence into "slave labour". In view of the situation, "There is a need for just laws" and international cooperation. Everyone has a "specific role and responsibilities, to practice acts of fraternity" towards the victims of exploitation.</em></p> <p>Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In his message for the 48<sup>th</sup> World Day of Peace, Francis warned against becoming accomplices in the many forms of modern slavery. Millions of people are sadly involved in "man's exploitation by man," forced by violence into "slave labour, [. . .] men and women labourers, including minors, [who are] subjugated in different sectors, whether formally or informally", migrants and poor. In view of this, the pontiff issued an urgent "appeal to all men and women of good will, and all those near or far, including the highest levels of civil institutions, who witness the scourge of contemporary slavery" to take action against slavery.
<p><em><em><span id="result_box" lang="en">Yesterday in Oslo the </span></em></em><em><em><span id="result_box" lang="en">Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Sathyarti, awarded last October<span>.</span></span></em></em></p> <p>Two champions of children’s rights have been honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo.</p> <p>The award was shared between Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi, 60, and Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, at 17 the youngest person ever to receive it.</p>
<p><em>Super Soccer World 2014, a worldwide soccer tournament for teens who would like to use sports as an instrument for building relationships and for peace among different countries. There were 56 teams involved from various cities around the world.</em></p> <p><strong></strong><strong>A soccer tournament where the winner is not one team but two and from different parts of the planet</strong> sometimes very far from each other? Where Art Play is practiced and awarded? Where the sponsors are willing to donate an amount for every goal as a contribution to finance scholarships for teens from disadvantaged countries? Many initiatives and projects of solidarity? A “third playing time”…?</p> <p><strong></strong><strong>«This and many other things were part of the Super Soccer World 2014</strong> – Federico Rovea, one of the organizers of the event shared with us. This sporting event was promoted by the “<a href="http://www.focolare.org/en/movimento-dei-focolari/un-popolo/rpu/" target="_blank">Teens for Unity</a>” of the Focolare Movment and <strong>involved 56 soccer teams from various cities in the world»</strong>.
<p><em><span id="result_box" lang="en">A memorial that has not only to remember but most of all to unite.</span></em></p> <p>‘The Ring of Memory’ memorial in northern France was designed to focus attention not on nations but on the individuals who lost their lives in World War One.</p> <p>Euronews correspondent Laurence Alexandrowicz met its creator, Architect Philippe Prost: “The shape of a ring came to me quite easily, to express an idea, of giving the concept of fellowship a shape.</p>
<p><em><span id="result_box" lang="en">What does it mean to live in war? What does it mean to see every day murder victims? A way out is still possible? A friend who lives in Damascus sent us this letter.</span><br /></em></p> <p>Dear all,<br /><strong>sorry that I have not written for a long time, but today, after being at a funeral of two young brothers, I thought I could no longer delay.</strong> <strong>The two brothers are uncles of a girl I know, one is 35 and the other is 37 years old.</strong> They were kidnapped a month ago, they had gone to protect their city from the "anti-government rebels;" for one month there has been no news .... but the other day they found them dead, disfigured, with their heads cut off! What a tragedy, what a pain .... <strong>One of them is married and has two daughters, his wife is pregnant and about to give birth this month.</strong> In front of this pain, there are no words, there was a sadness that breaks my heart apart ... I said to myself "My God, how long, how long must this war go on? This is enough!" Greeting the family, I felt I was giving the embrace of the whole church and all of you who pray and offer for peace.</p>
<p><em>Pope Francis and leaders of the Orthodox, Anglican, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist faiths sign a Joint Declaration in the Vatican today. Through the latter, the Global Freedom Network (GFN), which is behind the initiative, wants a common commitment to inspire spiritual and practical action by all faiths and people of goodwill everywhere to eradicate modern slavery, a practice that affects 36 million people.</em></p> <p>Vatican City (AsiaNews) - For the first time in history, the religious leaders world's Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists are scheduled to sign a declaration calling for the eradication of modern slavery.</p> <p>The leaders of the Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches, as well as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim faiths make their commitment against slavery today in a Joint Declaration at the Vatican, on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.</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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