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>19 coordinators of Butterflies, a women's rights network which also has 100 core volunteers. They put their lives on the line to assist forcibly displaced women and those who have been subject to sexual or physical violence.</em></p> <p>Geneva – <strong>The UN refugee agency on Friday (12th of September) named</strong> a group of courageous Colombian women as winners of the prestigious annual Nansen Refugee Award for their work in helping survivors of forced displacement and sexual abuse in the violence-ridden and run-down Pacific port of Buenaventura.</p> <p><strong>The volunteers of the women's rights group</strong>, Red Mariposas de Alas Nuevas Construyendo Futuro (known in English as Butterflies for short), are being recognized for their selfless work in helping more than 1,000 women and their families in Buenaventura, Colombia's main seaport.
<p><em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">In the summer of 2009 t</span>hree students, <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">when their university lecturers in Nigeria went on strike, realized <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px;">the single largest job placement website in sub-Saharan Africa, helping over 35,000 people find jobs within the last two years.</span></span></em></p> <p><strong>Three students had time</strong> on their hands in the summer of 2009 when their university lecturers in Nigeria went on strike.</p> <p><strong>Instead of slacking off,</strong> Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi started an online job search company.</p> <p><strong>Five years later their start-up,</strong> Jobberman, has got a multi-million dollar valuation, employs 125 people, and is still growing.
<p><em>Together with six other non-governmental organizations, the Catholic section of Chittagong has planted trees for 16 miles on a provincial road frequently used by tourists. This can help avoid landslides during the rainy season and the environment. The thanks of the local government.</em></p> <p>Chittagong - <strong>Planting trees to help protect the environment</strong> and prevent landslides and floods, but also "for a better world to live in together". This was the goal of Caritas Bangladesh, along with six other non-governmental organizations, who have planted trees along 16 kilometers of road in the area of Bandarban. The end of summer, the volunteers explained, "is the best time to plant. They will not immediately suffer the blistering heat and will have time to take root".
<p><em>The Juniper Forest of Ziarat in Balochistan, which is believed to be the second largest of its kind in the world, has been declared as Biosphere Reserve.</em></p> <p><strong>The International Coordinating Council of Man and Biosphere</strong> (ICCMAB) Programme of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which announced the title for Juniper Forest of Ziarat had earlier in 1977, declared Lal Suhanra in Cholistan desert of southern Punjab province as Biosphere Reserve. Thus, the development is considered historic in many ways.</p> <p><strong>According to Pakistan Museum of Natural History</strong> (PMNH), the Biosphere Reserve of Ziarat is habitat to the largest patch of Juniper forests (juniperus excelsa polycarpos) in Pakistan and measures about 110,000 HA.</p>
<p><em>Argentine restaurant employing disabled people leads by example</em></p> <p><strong>For fifteen years a small</strong>, successful enterprise in Buenos Aires has been selling hotdogs, hamburgers and pizzas.</p> <p><strong>It's a restaurant like</strong> many others, but with one significant difference. Most of the people who work at "Discapanch" have a disability.</p> <p><strong>Source: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/">www.bbc.com
<p><em>Observatory to meet society's ‘real demands’, minist</em></p> <p style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px;"><strong>Italy's education ministry</strong> on Tuesday launched a national observatory for the integration of foreign students and interculturalism in the country's schools.</p> <p><strong>The observatory is</strong> mandated to "identify ways of bringing policies for school integration into line with the real demands of a society that is increasingly multicultural and in constant transformation", Education Minister Stefania Giannini said.</p>
<p><em>Poland +3.2%, Czech Republic +2.6%</em></p> <p>(ANSA) - <strong>The Eurozone deals with zero growth</strong>, Italy sees again the recession and even Germany's economy is contracting, but the economies of Eastern Europe continue reach growth. Poland has recorded a GDP growth of 3.2% in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2013 and an increase of 0.6% over the first quarter of 2014. In the same period Czech Republic grew by 2.6% (zero growth in the first quarter), Hungary by 3.9% (0.8%), Romania 1.4% (-1%), Slovakia by 2.5% (0.6%) and Bulgaria by 1.6% (0.5%).
<p itemprop="alternativeHeadline description"><em>Russia and Ukraine "reach ceasefire" in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko announces</em></p> <p itemprop="alternativeHeadline description"><strong>Moscow's and Kiev's positions</strong> on how to end the crisis in eastern Ukraine are "very close," Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. A permanent ceasefire deal brokered by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe could be reached as early as Friday, he said.</p> <p itemprop="alternativeHeadline description"><strong>The 3th of september Ukrainian President</strong> Petro Poroshenko spoke of agreement concerning the steps required to reach a "permanent ceasefire". The statement was later revised, limiting agreement to a "ceasefire regime".
<p><em>Through soccer, youth in South Africa come closer to one another.</em></p> <p><strong>Like many others from my generation</strong>, after graduation I was working part-time while struggling to find meaningful, career-focused work, when I stumbled across an internship opportunity with the Football Foundation of South Africa (FFSA), among other job postings in a newsletter.</p> <p><strong>The FFSA is a nonprofit organization</strong> founded in 2008 that has served the small town of Gansbaai and surrounding communities ever since by offering social integration, education and life skills through the vehicle of sports.
Dialogue & Interculture
United World Week
Every year, from May 1st to 7th, the United World Project support, together with the Focolare Movement and Youth for a United World (Y4UW), the United World Week, a global action where many people promote events and initiatives worldwide to foster dialogue, unity, and peace.
Dialogue & Interculture
Dialogue & Interculture
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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