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 story of a group of young Muslims of the Focolare community in a north African country. The discovery of the power of love that goes beyond every difference.</em></p> <p><strong>For a long time we thought</strong> that it wouldn’t be possible to have any relationship with Christian young people in such a deep way. But the things that come from God can’t lack harmony.</p> <p><strong>We are Muslims,</strong> by culture and by conviction. We come from a country, Algeria, where nearly everyone is Muslim, where contacts with other religions are extremely rare or, more usually, completely inexistent.<br />Certainly, introducing into our lives a Movement rooted in Christianity is a real challenge. In first place, this is because our cultures are so different – with differences encouraged by political ideas and by history, which are made more intense by many social and cultural obstacles.
<p><em>It 's the message of Pope Francis for the 1 of January 2014 for individuals and peoples. We propose the full version.</em></p> <p><img src="images/news/2013-2015/Papa_Francesco_Colombe.jpg" width="201" height="150" alt="Papa Francesco Colombe" style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" /><strong>"Fraternity: foundation and path to peace."</strong> This is the title chosen by Pope Francis for the 47th World Day for Peace, established by Pope Paul VI.</p> <p><strong>The document, dated December 8</strong>, consists of 10 points including a brief prologue and a conclusion structured in relation to two biblical quotation: "Where is your brother?" (Genesis 4:9) and "Are you will all be brothers" (Matthew 23:8), and six sentences describing fraternity: peace, poverty, economy, war, corruption and nature. We propose the full version.</p>
<p> </p> <p><em>It has taken part to the project Croatia, Serbia and Italy.</em></p> <p><img src="images/news/2013-2015/I_care_for_Europe.jpg" width="200" height="150" alt="I care for Europe" style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />'<strong>I care for ... Europe": </strong>it's the European network of small towns with the aim to raise awareness among their communities in different countries and initiate a common path on the defense of human rights and the adoption of local development policies and cooperation.</p> <p><strong>The start of "I care for ... Europe"</strong> in a three-day event hosted in Friuli Venezia Giulia, with more than 200 citizens from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia -Herzegovina. Of the project, in fact, has taken part Tarcento and Aquileia for Italy, Rakovica for Croatia, Čapljina for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bač for Serbia.
<p> </p> <p><em>Young Portuguese told about UWP. Arco - Iris were organized a National Forum and Lisbon with a volunteer project for children and seniors. Prospects of a fraternity always attentive to the local.</em></p> <p><strong><img src="images/news/2013-2015/Portogallo_Meeting_ottobre_2013.png" width="198" height="150" alt="Portogallo Meeting ottobre 2013" style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />From Portugal comes</strong> other recent actions with fraternal perspective: from a meeting at the end of October to a volunteer project<em> </em> with protagonists the Youth for a United World.</p> <p><strong>Citizenship for the fraternity</strong></p> <p>"Ninety young people met October 12 and13 for the first National Meeting "One direction: Citizenship for the Fraternity " one year after the Genfest 2012 where it was launched the United Word Project. To understand how it was evolving "to set in motion the proposals of UWP and sharing local fragments of fraternity."</p>
<p> <em>Eight women dressed in black paid the cost to those who could not afford it at the market of Athens.</em></p> <p><strong><img src="images/news/2013-2015/Barbakeios.jpg" width="230" height="150" alt="Barbakeios" style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />The news was given by the italian newspaper</strong> "La Repubblica " during on Christmas holidays. It was posted on web several times. This news gave hope to people. It 's the story that comes from Greece brought to its knees by the economic crisis .</p> <p><strong>On December 22</strong>, at the popular market of Athens, Barbakeios, with all kinds of foodstuff, eight women, dressed in black, placing themselves near cash register of a market, they paid the cost to those who had small portions of meat.
<p><em>During the holidays, many people get involved in giving and serving. Does it have to end with the season? And how can we give so that it truly benefits others?</em></p> <p><strong><img src="images/news/2013-2015/Donare.jpg" width="268" height="188" alt="Donare" style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />Are people fundamentally givers or takers?</strong> Is the ability to care for others, help and share part of our nature?In early societies, community was essential. Being alone was almost equivalent to being condamned to die in wilderness. In today's world, it seems that we are less dependent on each other. In the business world it is often said that peoplewho want to climb the career ladder should think of themselves- have the winner-takes-all attitude. <em><br /></em></p> <p><strong>Adam Grant, a young professor</strong> from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, describes the opposite in his book Give and Take. Givers are more successful; they are better networkers, and it pays back if you pay forward by giving with no expectations. He has extraordinary examples of how people who always offer their help receive a lot more in the long run.
<p> </p> <p style="font-size: 13px;"><em>A "fragment of fraternity" from India. After ten years a project that began by helping a few families in need cares today for more the 115 young people with a range of educational activities going from intercultural awareness to medical treatment. </em></p> <p style="font-size: 13px;"><strong><img src="images/news/2013-2015/Mumbai.jpg" width="250" height="166" alt="Mumbai" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />Mumbai is the economic heart</strong> of India and one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the country. But many of its 20 million inhabitants live on the streets or in slums found all over in the city. In one of these, about forty minutes by train from the centre of the city in the north west, live about 400 thousand people in conditions of extreme poverty.</p> <p style="font-size: 13px;"><strong>It is here that in 1997</strong> several families in the slum decided to set up a social project in collaboration with ‘Support at a Distance’, a project run by New Families. In 2001, during her first visit to India, Chiara Lubich encouraged them to develop what they had begun as ‘a practical response to the poverty around us.’
<p> <em>The Greek coastguard has rescued more than 90 migrants sailing off the south of the country after their boat ran into trouble in bad weather, a spokeswoman said Thursday.</em></p> <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><strong><img src="images/news/2013-2015/Immigrati.jpg" width="250" height="150" alt="Immigrati" style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />“Overall 97 persons (were rescued) yesterday</strong>, including three who are presumed traffickers,” a coastguard spokeswoman told AFP, adding they have all been taken to the western city of Pylos.<br />“The traffickers are being detained in the police station and the other 94 persons are in a stadium” on a temporary basis, she said.</p> <p><strong>The boat first encountered difficulties</strong> late on Monday and the rescue operation, in which 13 vessels and one helicopter participated, was completed on Wednesday.<br />All the migrants are doing well according to the coastguard. Their nationalities have not been released. Two pregnant women and an elderly woman were taken to the city’s health centre as a precautionary measure, the state-run Athens News Agency reported.
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.
EN
