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>For “The protagonists of the fraternity,” the figure of the sixteen year old Pakistani awarded the European Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.</em></p> <p><em></em><strong>Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai</strong> first came to public attention in 2009 when she wrote an affecting BBC diary about life under the Taliban. But three years later, in October 2012, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because of her campaign for girls' education. She was already well known in Pakistan, but that one shocking act catapulted her to international fame.</p> <p><strong>She survived the dramatic assault</strong>, in which a militant boarded her school bus in Pakistan's north-western Swat valley and opened fire, wounding two of her school-friends as well. The story of her slow recovery, from delicate surgery at a Pakistani military hospital to further operations and a programme of rehabilitation in the UK, has since been closely tracked by the world's media.</p>
<p><em>Rediscovering a dream</em></p> <p><strong>Europe’s deepest meaning embraces</strong> the physical map of the continent, crossing the political, economic and cultural history of millenniums, recalling the moral values on which a project of unification was built, which continues its progress today, between shoves, arrests, and restarts.<br /> <br /><strong>If the bases of the European civilization were built</strong> starting from ancient times, if the development of Christianity and of the Christian civilization have introduced elements of homogeneity, of a precise and clear European conscience, we cannot speak about of it if not in these modern times and in this contemporary era, a period that has known the most dramatic confrontations between opposing nationalisms, between ideologies able to put forward States’ claims and their will for economical dominance, and the cultural and anthropological confrontations going from political spaces, to battle fields.
<p><em>COMAI-sponsored debate on Francis October 19 in Rome</em></p> <p><strong>(ANSA) - Rome -</strong> The Association of Arab Communities in Italy (COMAI) will celebrate this year's Eid al-Adha, or the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, with a debate in Rome on mutual cultural understanding and the possibilities for dialogue with Pope Francis.</p> <p><strong>The Eid festival begins Tuesday</strong>.COMAI will hold its debate on Saturday, October 19 in a hotel in the Italian capital.</p> <p><strong>"The Eid festival will be an occasion</strong> to meet and debate religious issues and the turning point represented by Pope Francis", COMAI President Foad Aodi explained.</p>
<p><em>Ten rules launched at the end of the Meeting "Learning Faternity" in Castelgandolfo<br /></em></p> <p><strong>During the conference-workshop</strong> about Education and Fraternity wich took place last mounth ( Castelgandolfo 6-8 September) the Project of Learning Fraternity continues with lot's of enthusiasm with the "Ten rules for a Fraternal Education" .</p> <p><strong>Fraternity: person-relationship</strong></p> <p><strong>1.</strong> Be true witnesses of fraternity. “Educate with one’s life”: offer a model based on the authenticity of the educator’s being, on trust, dialogue, unconditional acceptance.
<p><em>It will start in Berlin and will go through Moscow, Irkutsk, Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul and Busan. A journey towards reunification of Koreas</em></p> <p><strong>A Peace Train has recently started its journey</strong> from Berlin, Germany through Russia and China to northeast Asia and the World Council of Churches (WCC) 10th assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea.<br />The train, which aims to raise awareness about the 60-year division of the Korean Peninsula, will travel through Moscow, Irkutsk, Beijing, Pyongyang and Seoul, and will finally arrive in Busan around the beginning of the assembly on 30 October.</p> <p><strong>The Peace Train is a project</strong> of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and the Korean Host Committee for the WCC assembly.</p>
<p><em>A book written by a South Korean poet and nurse receives award from Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. A story of fraternity</em></p> <p><strong>“My mother, in her eighties, has begun to make steps</strong> on the flowery path: gradually she no longer thought, and saw things with the heart. Finally, her heart gave in and her pure eyes were all that remained. She’s often a child of six or seven and asks about her small friends; sometimes she weeps because of her longing to see her Mamma and Papa;but then she trustfully smiles as she steps in and out of the flowery path.</p> <p><strong>Occasionally, following my Mother</strong>, I also step onto the flowery path, and the worrisome burdens of the world are turned into light clouds in the sky; I also become a mere flower within my mother’s secure enclosure.”</p>
<p><em>The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons awarded Prize amid Syria conflict</em></p> <p><strong>OSLO—The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons</strong> was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons."</p> <p><strong>The award, given in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee</strong>, comes as the intergovernmental OPCW is currently overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. The Netherlands-based group was launched in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention arms control treaty took effect. The Convention has 189 signatories and Syria has applied to be the 190th.</p> <p> </p>
<p><em>The Nepalese government has launched an ambitious new programme which aims to eradicate illiteracy in the country by 2015</em></p> <p><br /><strong>The Literate Nepal Mission aims</strong> to ensure 1.38 million Nepalese people learn to read and write every year for three years, with an investment of Rs 3.95bn (£27.9m). According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), the country’s literacy rate currently stands at 70%.</p> <p><strong>In 2008, the literacy rate was 55.6%.</strong> A previous drive in 2009 – The Literacy Campaign – failed to meet its target of wiping out illiteracy, but has paved the way for this most recent programme.
<p><em>Likens Christianity to a symphony with different instruments</em></p> <p><strong>(ANSA) - Vatican City, October 9</strong> - Pope Francis on Wednesday called on the faithful to embrace diversity within Christianity at a general audience in which he spoke on the meaning of "catholic" as it pertains to the Church.</p> <p><strong>"The Church is catholic because it is home to everyone</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Everyone is a child of the Church and everyone is in that home</strong>," Pope Francis declared to a crowd of followers in St. Peter's Square estimated by the Vatican to number 60,000.
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
