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>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>
<p><em>An attraction for modern economy. The end of the Winter School in Croatia</em></p> <p><em>“.....to penetrate in the highest contemplation</em><br /><em>while remaining amongst others,</em><br /><em>man beside man.”</em><br />(From the writings of Chiara Lubich)</p> <p>The second day of the Winter School in Croatia began with this meditation by Chiara Lubich. A morning built upon deep sharing. The dialogue between Luigino Bruni (Coordinator of the International Commission of Economy of Communion - EoC) and the participants brought one to reflect on the economic situation existing today and its values.</p>
<h1><span>The UN Focal Point on Youth launched a four-week online discussion platform on 23 January 2013 </span></h1> <p>As part of the preparations for the 2013 UN World Youth Report (WYR) on Youth Migration and Development, the UN Focal Point on Youth launched a four-week online discussion platform on 23 January. </p> <p>Newly available estimates of international migrants by age produced by the Population Division of DESA indicated that by mid-2010, globally, there were 27 million international migrants aged 15 to 24, constituting about one-eighth of the global migrant stock of 214 million. </p>
<p>A young twenty year-old with a beautiful smile, fresh and simple, that’s how Alejandra Giménez looks. She is studying the second year of Medicine in Asunción, Paraguay, where she lives with her parents and a younger brother. With lots of enthusiasm, Alejandra tells about her commitment at the University, in the scientific and student associations. All these commitments and activities obviously take time from her studies, and she needs to leave out many things she would like to do, but she manages all these because she gives the required time to her spiritual formation. That’s why she meets regularly with the other young people from the Focolare, where she finds all the support she needs. But let’s hear it from her.</p>
<p>During our visit to the majestic grounds of the Shwedagon Pagoda, some of us were given a passionate and beautiful commentary on the meaning of the place and its importance to the national identity. Only to be pleasantly surprised that our guides were a Muslim and a Hindu. Then we were inspired by other encounters such as a young doctor who had the opportunity to pursue a career overseas but chose to come back and set up his medical practice. These experiences inspire us to be hopeful of the future of Myanmar because of our peers; the young religious leaders.</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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