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17 Jan 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Many hectares of forest were devoured by fires in different countries during the European summer last year as was the case in Albania. The Youth for a United World there thought of launching to many of their peers the idea to purchase trees that they would plant together in the burned areas. Hence the project name “Adopt a tree”.
They wrote from Albania saying that “Feverish preparations were being made for this meeting since many weeks with many unexpected occurrences, such as the concurrence with the national holiday of the 100th anniversary of the country’s Independence. Many universities would remain closed for a few days and therefore many young people would have returned to their home towns”.
Notwithstanding this and the hall with an 80 seats capacity, 140 young people arrived in Tirana on the 28th and 29th November to spend two days as a follow-up to the experience lived at the Genfest in Budapest.
They narrate that “We lived the strongest and most beautiful experience during the preparation made together with a group of young people who had participated with us at the Genfest. They felt as protagonists in the first person. There were some who organized the meals, others the choreographies, singing, testimonies, translation and dubbing of videos, presentations…
“This helped make us a very united group. It gave us the strength to invite our friends by helping them find ways to remain in the city, even if some boarding schools were closed”.
The meeting was entitled “Do unto others as you want others to do unto you”, the noted golden rule present in almost all religions. During the two-day program, besides listening to the main themes of the Genfest, the United World Project was explained. It is an initiative pursued by the Youth for a United World throughout the world.
They conclude saying that “The young people present were happy with this experience of unity and lived reciprocity. Many thanked us because they have seen that a more united world is feasible, that it is possible to change the reality around us by beginning with ourselves in the first place, and that we are not alone in doing so”.
The Youth for a United World in Albania
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16 Jan 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
“When I heard of the initiative calling for early elections for the junior Mayor of my city, I proposed my candidacy. I was excited to be able to do something and witness my ideal of living for a united world. Immediately we met up with some friends and our party, the IPIF, “Together for the future”, was born. We drew up a manifesto, the logo and then the election campaign began. We were 9 candidates.
I was sure that in the end, regardless of whether I would have been elected or not, I would have learned many things, both in the political sphere as well as in the efforts of seeing Jesus in the other [Mt 25,40 Editor’s note], even if they were ‘competing’ with me.
Above all, I wanted to try to live with my companions, some of whom are non-believers, an experience in the “style of unity”. Finally the election day arrived, but my thoughts were not directed to the votes that I would have received, because I was overjoyed to see all the candidates joking together: it was an atmosphere so different from the one we usually see in these circumstances! Only two of us had obtained the majority of the votes and I had obtained even five more than the other candidate. I was happy with it because I had moved to the city since only a year.
Being a minimum difference, we went to the second ballot and my companion turned out winner. Even if it may seem strange to some, I was happy for him. The competition was a healthy challenge, as we had succeeded, both in the meetings as well as in the election campaign, to help each other, without one overshadowing the other but, on the contrary, exchanging useful ideas. In the end I was nominated president of the Council. Even today, there is maximum cooperation between all and there is no distinction between the majority and the minority, but together we are united to achieve what is important for us and for our school.
Later, on meeting with the ‘adult’ Mayor, we saw how the ideas of us teenagers are important in helping improve the city! In fact, our request to start the sorted waste collection was taken into consideration and is already being implemented”.
(E. – Italy)
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15 Jan 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Maria Voce’s trip to Johor to meet the Focolare communities is the chance for her to get to know some Asian countries better, in particular Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Indonesia’s motto is ‘Unity in Diversity’ and it expresses the huge ethnic and linguistic variety of the world’s largest archipelago state, made up of 17,508 islands. In all these nations the Christians (of various churches) are less than 10% of the population and the majority are, in Indonesia and Malaysia, Muslim, and, in Singapore, Buddhist and Taoist. More or less during the 60s the seeds of the spirituality of unity began to be spread in this part of the world through religious such as Fr Tarcisio Centis, in Medan (Indonesia) and clergy such as Fr Jose Lai (Singapore), currently bishop of Macau, as well as through the magazine New City and the Word of Life leaflet. In 1991 two focolare centres were opened in Singapore, which have now moved to Yogyakarta in Indonesia, and in 2004 two were opened in Medan. Towards the end of the 80s it was the turn of Malaysia to receive the spirituality. This time it was via Fr Raphael Kang. After that in the 90s there were Mariapolises in Johor and Penang and a Familyfest (as the name suggests, a gathering for families) held in Penang. Some members went to the formation school in Loppiano and to international events such as the gathering for young adults, called Genfest. In Malaysia (in Johor) there is a ‘family focolare’; and various members of the Movement are spread throughout the nation. The seeds of the spirituality have grown, giving life to many small but active communities, which have started initiatives involving people from different confessional backgrounds,
Young people at Penang (Malesia)
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13 Jan 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Basic support for young people from Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe is also offered by entities such as the Giorgio La Pira International Centre. How is this commitment expressed in concrete terms?
The Centre’s director, Mauricio Certini recalls: “In March 1978, faced with the disorientation and loneliness of many foreign students, the Church in Florence wished to provide them a place where they would be welcome with respect to their different cultural or religious backgrounds; a place that would be open to dialogue, where they could help each other in overcoming the difficulties they were facing; a place where they could meet. As Pope John Paul II would later say, a place where they would find the thrust “toward a culturally richer society, more fraternal in its diversity.”
Both the diocese and the city responded enthusiastically to the proposal of Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, who began by turning for help from Chiara Lubich and the Focolare Movement. Several Focolare families from Florence offered to host students in their homes, for example, and to care for them as their own children. These first volunteers at the Centre opened themselves to love with a universal heart like the heart of God, with the sensitivity of people in today’s world, and the strength of the Gospel.”
Over the years the centre has grown. Now, as Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, former president of the Italian Bishops Conference has said, it is “a true home for the peoples.” It has become a very modern network of persons, associations and institutions. This is where the first foreign student associations began that would later become the basis for the constitutions of the immigrant community, which in the future will soon be arising in Italy at Pisa, Sienna and Arezzo.
“But the real meaning of the centre,” Certini underscores, “is the myriad of faces that we’ve encountered and continue to encounter, of young people from nations that are often embroiled in conflict. It is these that have made La Pira Centre an ongoing laboratory of peace education. These young people returning to their home countries – sometimes ruled by dictatorial regimes – can impose themselves as a real resource for democracy and aspire to belong to the future leadership class.”
Source: “Toscana Oggi”
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11 Jan 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
The international Youth for Unity project will begin in Italy and then (July 2014) Argentina.
The reasons for this choice are many, the most important one being that of demonstrating how much the Latin American continent that is comprised of peoples with such diverse cultural roots, has to offer to the world. Moreover at the last project site which was held in the Focolare town of Loppiano (July 2012), the teenager in attendance had expressed their desire to repeat the experience every two years on a different continent.
The idea of beginning at Mariapolis Lia in Argentina came because of the abundant presence of young people that characterizes this Focolare town located on the Pampas. Thus it was chosen to be the place that will host the first phase of the project because of its special ability to welcome the new generations.
The Global Project has two phases. The first will be carried out at Mariapolis Lia where, for four days, the boys from around the world will set up their project site through a dynamic program whose goal will be to learn to “relate” with everyone by overcoming cultural differences, sharing personal experiences and being enriched by those of others – all in a climate of mutual love that allows each and all together, to be formed into world men.
The second phase of the project will take place in a variety of cities of the Latin American continent where there are already social projects that are animated by the spirituality of unity (schools, clinics, child-care centres, elderly care).
This experience will “give witness,” as Focolare president, Maria Voce stated during a visit to Latin America in spring 2012 “that there is no boarder nor ethnic difference that is insurmountable. There’s not anything, not even the Andes that divide us, not even the ocean, nothing, nothing, nothing. We can go beyond all of these things because of our reciprocal love.”
By visiting local sites the boys will be able to enter into local environments, to embrace real challenges, as well as the cultural riches of each people. Within this atmosphere, together with local teenagers who live in these cities, the participants from other countries will be engaged in social projects through contact with native populations in local “culture of giving” projects; for example, in sport, art, and so on. This project was born from a need to look toward the world, after a few years of involvement in the “Let’s Colour the City” project. Because Chiara Lubich would say: “one city is not enough: aim far, at your own country, and at everyone’s country – the world.”
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10 Jan 2013 | Focolare Worldwide
Kinshasa, Moyi Mwa Ntongo Medical Center (Morning Sun Medical Centre) is one of the social projects of the Focolare Movement in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was the recipient of an interesting project promoted by a local optical company in collaboration with the United World Association (AMU). The “Do something for them” campaign was geared towards the citizens of Grottaferrata, Italy. The objective was to collect eyeglasses (many of them damaged), which the optical centre in Grottaferrata would repair, disinfect, classify and pack for shipment to Kinshasa.
Besides the general, gynaecological, paediatric and dermatological medical services that are offered by the Congolese health centre, there is also a fully functioning ophthalmological centre, with a programme for preventing blindness and other services in this field, thanks to the top-class equipment that has been donated. The main beneficiaries of these services are the more than 1,200 children who are served by the school and nutrition assistance programme “Petite Flamme” in both Kinshasa and other cities of the country.
The staff at the health centre has been trained to conduct eye tests on children and provide training in the prevention of blindness to families and teachers. Children requiring eye care or even surgery, are welcomed at the centre and, when needed, they receive free medical treatment. but the cooperation between the peoples of the Northern and Southern hemispheres of our world, would have to become part of a culture of reciprocity that leads them to discover their common brotherhood even in the smallest actions of daily life.
The “Do something for them” campaign has been enthusiastically received by the population, so much so that in very many places in the city of Castelli Romani – schools, churches, offices – the donation boxes have already been filled. The results have been far better than what was expected: On the evening of 5th December, ten boxes filled with eyeglasses were displayed in the library of the Town Hall of Grottaferrata, with boxes and cartons stamped and ready for shipment. The results of the campaign were presented to some friends from Congo who in turn offered a presentation of their land and recounted the activities that are carried out by the Health Centre. Returning to Kinshasa, their baggage was definitely heavier. . . and now they are organizing a shipment with additional materials.
Compiled by Stefano Comazzi Projects sector – AMU
Taken from Newsletter Amu – Formation January 2013 – Year 4 ° No. 5
