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>On 25th March, a delegation of Youth for a United World (Y4UW) and New Humanity visited the MERCOSUR head office in Montevideo, Uruguay to meet Maria Paz Echeverriarza, the Education programme officer at the UNESCO Representation for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay</em></p> <p>On 25th March, a delegation of <a href="giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot." target="_blank">Youth for a United World (Y4UW) </a>and <a href="http://www.new-humanity.org/it/" target="_blank">New Humanity</a> of Uruguay was received by María Paz Echeverriarza, ethnologist and responsible for the area of Education at the UNESCO Representation to the governments of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.</p> <p>The members of the delegation were welcomed in the beautiful meeting room overlooking the Río de la Plata at the MERCOSUR office, home to the UNESCO commission for Uruguay. In this informal meeting, María Paz Echeverriarza explained what are the current priorities of UNESCO in the world – “gender equality (among males and females)” and Africa – and at the regional level – to improve the educational level of the teaching staff and the removal of inequality in the distribution of incomes and opportunities.</p>
<p><em>On 21st March 2013, the Genfest and the United World Project were presented at the European Information Centre in Lisbon</em></p> <p><br />During a high level European Union meeting focused on the “Europe for citizens” programme, around one hundred participants belonging to associations, civil and state institutions, and two <a href="http://giovaniperunmondounito.blogspot.it/" target="_blank">Youth for a United World (Y4UW)</a> shared about the <a href="http://www.genfest.org/" target="_blank">Genfest 2012</a> in Budapest (supported by the European Union) and the United World Project as a whole and in its implementation in Portugal. This took place on 21st March in the Portuguese capital during a Conference organized by the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal and the Secretary of State for Culture.</p>
<p><em>UNESCO - Panafrican Forum for a culture of peace in Luanda, Angola</em></p> <p>A Pan-African Forum jointly organized by UNESCO, the African Union Commission and the Government of the Republic of Angola will gather more than 300 experts. The goal of this Pan-African Forum is to harness Africa’s sources of inspiration and cultural, natural and human resources to establish concrete proposals for building and developing a sustainable peace. The Forum will examine the cultural, natural and human resources of Africa, taking into account that these three components are essential to creating an inclusive and holistic approach to the culture of peace. Peace being the cornerstone of endogenous development and Pan-Africanism.</p>
<p><em>EXPO 2013 in Chicago will be a laboratory for positive change</em></p> <p>A renewed humanity? Sounds like a big project. You’ll need a lot of people, and it will take some time, and probably you will need a few miracles along the way – especially if you think you have to change the whole world at once, and if you think you are alone. But you don’t. And you are not.Mary, a school nurse in Brooklyn, found some of her co-workers attracted to her commitment to building unity in their school. After three years working together, her group proposed an interdisciplinary, holistic approach to conflict resolution among staff members, encouraging them to listen more to one another and to consider the ideas and opinions of one another with respect. The proposal was accepted by their director and shared with the school’s whole staff.</p>
<p><em>On 23rd March at 08:00 pm an event will be held at Deliceto, Foggia on universal fraternity. The title of this event is “YOUth4Syria” and it will be presented by a young Syrian journalist, Wael Salibe</em></p> <p><br />The Youth for a United World (Y4UW) are working on a worldwide project: United World Project (UWP). This project was launched for the first time at the Genfest, an international event held in Budapest last September. Confronted by the emergency situation in Syria, an idea emerged: to organize concert-performance for the war refugees in that country. The “keyword” that underlies the whole event recalls the very title of the Genfest: “Let’s Bridge”, with the ardent desire to build relationships with all. The organizers of this event are the Youth for a United World and the UNESCO Club “Deliceto nei Monti Dauni”, a member of the Italian Federation of UNESCO Clubs and Centres.</p>
<p>On the global level, the ‘fragments of fraternity’ consist of timely interventions in order to assist victims of earthquakes, floods, famines, wars. On the local level, they include a wide range of micro-projects, all aimed at building fraternity in our own cities, neighbourhoods, schools, universities.</p> <p>There is a flurry of initiatives across the five continents: activities in favour of street children, homeless persons, abandoned elderly, handicapped people, prisoners and immigrants, according to the most urgent needs of the area. <br />These are the visible ‘fragments of fraternity’ that help overcoming evident problems, thus representing only the tip of the iceberg. There is, however, the submerged part of the iceberg: a fraternity built on daily basis, when we love one another and live as brothers and sisters.</p> <p>“Why don’t you share with us a ‘fragment of the fraternity’ from your everyday life?”</p>
<p><em>UN High Level Panel on Post-2015 Development Agenda</em></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;">As the whole world counts down to the 2015 as the deadline for the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals, it was very timely that the United Nations began the process of evaluating the performance of the MDGs and started planning towards shaping the next set of development goals.
<p><em>The meeting on 1st May at Jerusalem is the next step after Genfest 2012</em></p> <p>“Let’s Bridge” is the slogan that inaugurated the opening of the Genfest on 1st May 2012. Throughout this year, we Youth for a United World (Y4UW) focused on building bridges with all the people we meet, wherever we may be. This worldwide commitment was highlighted during the early days of September through the witness of 12,000 young people gathered in Budapest. On this event the United World Project (www.unitedworldproject.org) was launched, a project aiming at increasing and spreading the culture of fraternity.</p>
Economy & Work
Thirty-five years ago a dream was born: the Economy of Communion. In late May Argentina will host an extraordinary celebration where people of all ages will come together to breathe new life into this project and write the future for a different kind of economy.
Lorna Gold, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement, reflects on ten years of the encyclical, analysing how integral ecology is an essential path to global unity and tackling the climate crisis.
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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