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>US is the only member of Nato not to have signed an international treaty banning the use of anti-personnel landmines</em></p> <p><strong>The US announced today</strong> it would stop producing and buying anti-personnel landmines, the controversial weapons banned by all other Western nations.</p> <p><strong>The move is a major step</strong> towards allowing the US to finally join an international treaty, championed by Princess Diana, which bans the use of the small explosives.
<p><em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. It's<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> begun Sunday june 29, and Muslims around the world begin fasting for a month from sunrise until sunset.</span></span></em></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><strong>In this photo a Muslim woman reads a copy</strong> of the Koran at the Istiqlal mosque during the second day of ramadan in Jakarta, Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, on September 2, 2008. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><strong>Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar,</strong> has begun Sunday june 29, and Muslims around the world begin fasting for a month from sunrise until sunset.</p>
<p><em>Tweet and video message from pope Francis for the start of the World Championship of Football in Brazil: «Fair play» and respect for opponent</em></p> <p><strong>«</strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>I wish you all a wonderful World Cup, played in a spirit of true brotherhood»</strong>. That is what Pope Francis wrote in a tweet launched on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the World Cup in Brazil. The “tweet” is added to a video message (...) in which the Pope hopes that the World Cup «will be take place in complete serenity and tranquility, always with mutual respect, solidarity and fraternity among men and women who acknowledge that they are members of one family». The Pope hopes that «in addition to a sports celebration» the World Cup in Brazil will become a «festival of solidarity between nations»</span></span></p>
<p><em>Girl sends letter asking her father's boss to give him time off for his birthday (and it worked)</em></p> <p><strong>A Google employee is getting a week off work</strong> to spend with his young daughter thanks to an adorable note she wrote to his boss. Katie begged the internet giant to give her father just one day off to celebrate his birthday.<br /><strong>'Dear google worker,'</strong> the handwritten note reads. 'Can you please make sure when daddy goes to work, he gets one day off. Like he can get get a day off on wednesday. Because daddy ONLY gets a day off on saturday.'</p> <p><strong>The little girl’s plea didn’t end there.</strong>'P.S. It is daddy’s BIRTHDAY!' she wrote in blue crayon. 'P.P.S. It is summer, you know.'
<div style="height: 100%; color: #515151; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-image: initial; background-color: #ffffff; padding-right: 5px; padding-left: 5px; line-height: 130%; min-width: 90%; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial;"> <p style="font-size: 13px;"><em>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmBIpUYv-QY" target="_blank">a video on youtube</a> , to mark WRD of Friday june 20, Berahino has thanked England for giving him ‘a second chance’ out the war.</em></p> <p style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmBIpUYv-QY">West Bromwich Albion striker</a> Saido Berahino has thanked the England nation for giving him a second chance at life. He once thought his life was over.</p> <p style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>In 1993, Berahino was born during</strong> the Burundi civil war and lost his father four years later. After escaping the war-torn country, Berahino was separated from his family, including his mother and sisters.
<p><em>A project that provides various forms of help and action, in a sort of partnership between different cities and communities. Youth, adults, children, locals and tourists alike: there are many people involved in the project Batam.</em></p> <p><strong>Fifty minutes of the ship separated Singapore from Indonesia</strong>, which is one of the 17,000 islands of Batam. Twenty miles away and nearly two worlds that do not belong: the relations between the two countries are good, but while the former is rich, the second is poor. While one is a city-state with five million inhabitants, is the second largest archipelago in the world where 240 million people live. Only these numbers could make people understand why the reaction of tre.D 'Moreover the words of the Gospel were clear: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Golden Rule, ed.).
<p><em>All over the Indonesian capital Jakarta, volunteer teachers are teaming up with local graffiti artists to try and bring school to the city’s many street children.</em></p> <p><strong>Thousands of children work</strong> on the streets of Jakarta, living from begging and dropping out of school.</p> <p><strong>The idea of the project, named 'Graffiteach'</strong>, is to raise the children’s awareness through a medium they are exposed to every day.</p>
<p><em>A photo an act of fraternity. Pope Francis brings together the world's three greatest religions with a joint hug for a Jew and a Muslim</em></p> <p><strong>There were many striking images</strong> during the extraordinary 72 hours that Pope Francis spent in the Middle East.</p> <p><strong>However, the image that stood out most to me</strong> was a spontaneous embrace between Sheikh Omar Abboud, Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Pope Francis in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.</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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