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22 Aug 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Mumbai is the economic heart 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.
It is here that in 1997 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.’
From then on the project has grown. Today it cares for 115 young people from 4 to 22 years old. Its activities aim at supporting students in their schooling, nutrition and health, in order to raise the standard of life for them and their families. In 2004 the project took the name ‘Udisha’ which means ‘the sun ray that announces the new dawn’. Today Udisha participates in the Schoolmates project, a Teens for Unity project, which seeks to build up a network among school classes and groups of young people in various countries and to support projects that promote solidarity.
Main activities:
Schooling and education. In India the schools have 70-80 students per class. This makes it difficult to give individual tuition and, to pass their exams, the young people have to attend expensive private support lessons. The poorest among them, since they cannot afford this, are forced to give up their studies. Udisha, therefore, offers free support lessons in several subjects. In addition it tries to raise funds to pay for further schooling, educational equipment and school uniforms. Occasionally extra-curricular cultural and recreational activities are organized.
Intercultural awareness. There are various religions present at Udisha: Christian, Hindu and Muslim. One of the project’s objectives is to contribute to creating constructive integration, culturally, religiously, linguistically and also between the generations. It encourages exchanges of experience and activities, working together especially with the Shanti Ashram of Coimbatore.
Medical treatment. Many of the young people suffer from malnutrition. They are at risk from the seasonal epidemics that come with the rains or floods. For this reason during the year there are group medical visits involving both doctors in the area and other organizations. Help is also given to improve domestic diet with proteins and vitamins through the distribution of food stuffs and dietary supplements. For some time a counselling service for young people and parents has also been on offer.
Training in parenting. Meetings to raise understanding and to share good practice among families are organized periodically for parents. These are occasions for a rich exchange of experiences, advice and points of view.
Microcredit. A year ago Udisha began an small venture into microcredit which involves seventy of the young people’s mothers. Split into three groups that meet monthly, these mothers have been trained in microcredit in the kind of atmosphere of mutual trust absolutely necessary for such a venture to work. This year they will start to offer loans.
Source: Schoolmates website
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19 Aug 2013 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
I come from a small city near El Paso, Texas, where there is not much recreational fun. It offered me, though, something more valuable. The educational principles of the day-care center I attended as a child were based on the Art of Loving. So I have been trying to put them into practice for more than 70% of my life. Later we started our own youth group in our city called “
Teens for Unity” following the same principles. This small group has remained small, but our impact on the city can be seen. We decided to name our first project “
Colouring our city”. Like many other teens around the world, we didn’t literally color the city with crayons and colored pencils, but in order to color the city, we brought joy and fresh energy to it. One project was planting trees at local bus stations. These trees not only provide more oxygen for the environment, but also shade for local citizens who wait for the bus to arrive. Other projects have been: gathering school supplies for children in Mexico, sending support letters to victims of the Haiti earthquake, and most recently visiting the senior citizens center to provide them with companionship. Luckily, we received support from our mayor who gave us permission for our projects showing how he too wants to see a positive change in the city. A huge activity our youth group got into was the broadcast from a local radio station called
Chicos Por la Unidad (Young for Unity), 1110 AM Radio Guadalupana. Even though El Paso has been named the safest city in America for the last three years, because of its location on the border people are continually exposed to violence, injustice and poverty. We wanted to find some way to give the values of peace, brotherhood and love to the young people of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, our “sister city” right across the border and one of the most dangerous towns in Mexico. It took three months to get the approval, but in the end we created an hour-long program called “Teens for Unity — where only love can change the world.” For more than a year, we crossed the border into Mexico each week to go on air. We shared our initiatives and our personal experiences on how we tried to practice the Art of Loving in our daily lives. At first the program was dedicated to teens, but as the months went by, we decided to open our message to everyone. We would get feedback from listeners who called in or sent messages on the radio station website. Once we actually hosted a live event. Our youth group went to a restaurant in El Paso, where the radio station was broadcasting live. They gave us an hour of the program. The night consisted of fun games, sharing the word of God and sharing our experiences on how we loved our neighbors. All of these activities may seem like a lot of fun and you might think, “Wow, I would certainly take my family members or friends”. But it wasn’t always that easy. There was a time when there were basically two friends and my siblings in the group. It was disappointing because we did not get members quickly, but we would not stop. Even though our group became smaller, we still kept the principle of loving one another alive. Eventually, after about half a year we received more members and our events began to grow again! Our most recent project is called “Teens Got Talent Show”. We thought, why not host a local event, not for monetary gain, but for promoting love, unity and service? We invite young people to share their God-given talents with the community. We have hosted the event three times, twice at a local library, and once in a day care center for the elderly. The young people who perform have amazing talents. We continue to host these events where the performers expect no money, only the applause from the happy crowd.
By Jose Castro Source:
www.livingcitymagazine.com
Related video on YouTube: “Colour My City”
Making our cities a better place to live. Based on a talk given by Chiara Lubich in 1970.
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18 Aug 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Many cities were united with one another by a network of Mariapolises that were held around the world this year, from Sicily, in Italy to Bolivia, from Macedonia to the United States. Each Mariapolis had its own personality, but all of them shared the same spirit, based on universal brotherhood and the building of a better and more just society. In Chicago, USA, our Muslim friends travelled without food or water because of Ramadan, so that they could take part in the Mariapolis for one day that was dedicated to interreligious dialogue. Experiences on love of neighbor were shared by families, including a Muslim couple and a Jewish and Catholic husband and wife. Diversity of religions and nations was also evident in Macedonia where the theme of the Mariapolis was “The other another me”. The choice of this title immediately heightened the communion among all, between young people and adults, among Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics, between Macedonians and Albanians and also with those who arrived from Kosovo. The splendid natural surroundings, the hiking trails and sport activities provided opportunities to be open to one another and enter into the life stories of others. 
The motto of the Mariapolis in Lithuania was “Being bridges.” One bridge was built with Syria by inviting everyone to pray the time out for peace each day and collecting money for areas ravaged by war. Nearly 459 euros were collected. Many other bridges were built among people of different languages and cultures: there were Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians. The language barrier was overcome by speaking Russian, which is a common language among adults, while the young people spoke English among themselves. Language was never a barrier on the other side of the world in Indonesia where Indonesian, Chinese and English were the languages used by the 125 participants of the Mariapolis in Yogyakarta. And so a bit of the world has lived an extraordinary experience, the same experience that is repeated when evangelical love lies at the basis of every relationship. In Argentina the motto of the Mariapolis was “An experience of society renewed” to underscore that it is possible to transform society if we begin from ourselves, from our surroundings, remaining faithful in small things. From children to elderly, everyone experienced the various expressions of love: tangible, joyful, true, concrete love.
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17 Aug 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
They write from Egypt: “We want to assure you that all the members of the Movement in Egypt are well. The 14th of August was quite a painful day for the country, especially for Christians. As expected the government decided to vacate the occupied squares and unfortunately the reaction was surprisingly violent not only against the army, but against Christians as well. Throughout the country important churches, even ancient ones have been burned, also convents and schools that are run by men and women religious orders. Moderate Muslims immediately spoke out against the attacks and many offered to stand around churches to protect them. The grateful Christians asked them not to put their own lives in danger, because buildings can be reconstructed once the violence has passed.” “The Coptic Church is offering a powerful witness: Pope Tawadros has asked the faithful not to respond to any of the violence: “Will they burn the churches? We will pray in the mosques. Will they burn the mosques? We will pray in the churches. Will they burn both? We will pray together in the streets, for we are all Egyptians.” A. M. from the hard hit city of Assiut writes: “The church buildings have become incense burners, and the incense rises to Heaven to beg God for mercy on this people and grant miracles.” “A month-long state of emergency has been declared and in many cities there is a curfew from 19:00 until 6:00 in the morning. The situation is very serious and we are living moments of suspension, but we are held up by our unwavering faith in God’s love, a faith found not only in us but in all of Egypt’s Christians and Muslims.” “We feel the strong support of prayers from the Movement around the world and, on this feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, we have entrusted to Mary the people of this land who love her so dearly. “Rooted in the life of the Gospel, which invites us to love one another and everyone else, we offer this great suffering for the strengthening of peace not only here, but in the entire Middle East.”
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15 Aug 2013 | Focolare Worldwide, Senza categoria
The doors of LoppianoLab will be open from September 20, 2013 until September 22, 2013 at Loppiano, near Florence, Italy. Then, the workshop will continue which began in 2009 in the north of the country and involved more than ten thousand Italian citizens in promoting projects and round table discussions on civil society, the world of economics and work, young people, culture and training. Throughout the year proposals that emerge have become civil work sites where, with the input of local citizens projects and proposals have been developed in response to emergencies being faced by the country: legality, work, interreligious dialogue the educational crisis. Paolo Loriga, editor of Citta Nuova magazine, explains: “It is inevitable that some burning issues will be at the central in this year’s programme. The four promoters of the event: Lionello Bonfanti Business Park, Citta Nuova Press Group, Sophia University Institute and the International Focolare Centre of Loppiano will offer their own unique contributions. They will also be involved in coming up with a map of new paths and new trails that will be proposed for Italy’s hopeful future. Results of the many projects that have been developed over the past year by young people, trainers and entrepreneurs will also be collected and assembled. Two training courses of Civil Economy and Communion will attend the workshop, a network of companies that have generated jobs and innovation and a workshop on social information. Several projects on legality will be presented, which were carried out by networking with many citizens and local associations in Milan, Naples and Sicily.” The title of the event “Safeguarding Italy and building the future together” expresses an urgency to care for the country while remaining open to Europe and the Mediterranean regions, highlighting instead the networks of interdependence that connect the revival of a region and an industry to the people and communities that live and work there. The Lionello Bonfanti Business Park will once again host the Expo of businesses connected with the Economy of Communion, providing exhibition areas and meeting rooms also for private enterprises and non-profit businesses that work in the area of sustainability and responsible economy. This year’s annual convention will focus on the topic: “The Economy of Communion at a time of crisis: hoping and beginning again with new experience and new ideas.”
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13 Aug 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
“Truly we are eyewitnesses that the Church has taken up a new path as it follows Jesus in a world that is troubled by so much suffering,” said Francis B. Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithanvanij, Archbishop of Bangkok at the opening of the annual fraternal gathering of 50 bishop friends of the Focolare Movement from 4 continents. Following the grand events in Rio the meeting was held at the permanent Mariapolis of the Focolare Movement near San Paulo, Brazil. “There’s someone else at work, the Holy Spirit who constantly calls the Church to reform itself,” observed theologian Hubertus Blaumeiser. This is the constant appeal of Pope Francis.
How does the experience of the bishops enter into this “novelty”? Brendan Leahy, the newly elected Bishop of Limerick, Ireland commented: “At the school of a charism – which is a gift of the Holy Spirit – we must let ourselves be shaped so that, above all, we ourselves can be reformed in our very being; and not only at the level of the individual but also in the communal life among us. Reform always begins from a new experience of God. By living in the light of this charism we have an experience of God that is then communicated beyond us, in all relationships.”
This was the source of the effective and affective collegiality that was lived out with particular intensity during those 10 
days together. One expression of that mutual love was the rich exchange of experiences of the practice of the Gospel in daily life and its effect in their pastoral mission.
Interview with Cardinal Joao Aviz
“I realized that above all I must create a relationship of love with the people I work with and with those I come to meet. I should have no other measure but love,” recounted Cardinal Joao Aviz, Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Consecrated Life. “Just for the fact of listening, half the problems are already resolved. Then, one day, I realized that on the cross Jesus received no answer to his cry: ‘My God, my God why have you abandoned me?’ This really struck me. God’s times are not our times. Then, where there seemed to be no solution, the situation suddenly changes.”
The gathering began with the bishops’ commitment to live in profound unity with the Pope and to live Jesus’ new commandment, which they solemnly and openly declared at the celebration of the Eucharist. The gathering concluded at the final mass with the re-consecration to Jesus crucified and forsaken, who is the measure of this love that embraces and transforms the sufferings of the Church and humanity.
By Carla Cotignoli
