Run4Unity, the worldwide marathon of the Teens for Unity, takes place every year, on the first Sunday of May, at 12:00 in every country in the world. Imagine that while some young people are running against the background of the Egyptian pyramids, the prizes for the race just concluded in India are being awarded and in Asunción in Paraguay, preparations are underway for sporting events about to start in a big city park. Races and tournaments dedicated to peace and solidarity that, starting in Oceania and ending in the Americas, involve thousands of young people over a 24 hour period, all ready for the “start” when their time zone reaches noon. At that time they receive the relay baton from the countries of the preceding time zone and, one hour later, they pass it on to the countries of the next time zone.
A brilliant and simple idea which came from the International Centre of Teens for Unity and some Gen 3 boys and girls in 2005, after Chiara Lubich, who had just returned from a trip to India, told them about the beautiful experience she had when she had been invited to participate in a huge vent of young people of the Hindu Swandhyaya Movement who were deeply committed to sport. Chiara said, “Perhaps sport could be a way forward for young people.”
The format of Run4unity spread in the blink of an eye, adapted locally according to the different countries and the particular characteristics of each culture: sport became combined with initiatives for interreligious dialogue, development projects for those most in need, care and protection of the environment and commitment to peace and fraternity among peoples.
In 2025, the DG EAC (Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture) a Directorate of the European Commission, together with the EACEA, (the European Education and Culture Executive Agency) which manages funding programmes for education, culture, audio-visual media, sport, citizenship and volunteering launched the #BeActive EU Sport Awards.
New Humanity of the Focolare Movement submitted the long standing international Run4Unity project which was selected as a finalist in the Peace category. The Run4Unity organizers said, “A few weeks ago we learned that we had been selected from among 279 sports initiatives and that we were among the 15 finalists, 3 for each category The communication included an invitation for 2 representatives of each project to go to Brussels on 23rd June, 2026 for the award ceremony,. Agostino Spolti (formerly co-responsible for Ragazzi per l ‘Unità) and Elisabetta De Bernardi (a Gen 2 from Turin who had participated in several Run4Unity events focused specifically on peace, both as a Gen 3 and later as a Gen 2) went and …we won!”. This prestigious recognition comes in 2026, 21 years after the first Run4Unity, which this year saw relay events take place in over 100 countries, with thousands of young people, accompanied by youth leaders and adults in a fruitful intergenerational collaboration.
Sport is a way to live inclusion, concern for others, respect and growing together and – as stated in the competition announcement, it is obviously a way to form and spread a culture of peace. Agostino Spolti said, “We won because Run4Unity embodies all these elements: sport, the passing of the baton between different countries, the experience of belonging to one human family, taking time to reflect and to pray for peace with the “Time Out” and all of this has enormous educational value.”
On Wednesday, 24th June 2026, at 6:04pm, Venezuela changed forever in less than a minute. Two earthquakes, magnitude 7.1 and 7.5, separated by just 39 seconds, struck the north-central part of the country. The epicenter was located near Morón, in the State of Carabobo, but the most devastating impact was felt in La Guaira, Caracas and the surrounding areas, where many houses and buildings collapsed. The toll of casualties, missing and injured continues to rise as rescue operations proceed. Specialized teams from many countries are arriving to join the search for survivors, bringing humanitarian aid and essential supplies, as part of an international response that is growing by the hour.
The aftershocks have given no respite; there have already been over 100. Some are barely noticeable while others force us to flee our homes repeatedly. We are living in a constant state of alert. We sleep little. Fatigue weighs heavily on us, as does fear. Added to this are the difficulties of a city trying to continue functioning: the telephone signal and internet connection work intermittently, electricity supplies fluctuate constantly and, in many buildings, the supply of gas has been suspended as a precaution. Even the simplest decisions require enormous effort: organizing ourselves, carrying out practical tasks, coordinating teams, or simply contacting loved ones to know if they are safe. Everything becomes more difficult when the earth keeps reminding us that it has not yet stopped shaking.
Venezuela is dealing with this earthquake from a condition of vulnerability. Many buildings were built without the earthquake-resistant standards that are now the norm in other regions and some have suffered from years of wear and insufficient maintenance. This emergency is unfolding with an already challenging socio-economic reality, which makes the response process even more complex.
However, in the midst of this fragile reality, we are also discovering an immense strength that comes from communion.
As the Focolare Movement, we have opened our homes – the Focolare centres that, fortunately, have not suffered any structural damage – to welcome those who have had to abandon their homes. Some families can no longer return home, because their buildings are at risk of collapsing; others have lost everything. We have offered accommodation, food, clothing and whatever else that can alleviate the most urgent and immediate needs.
Sadly the tragedy has also touched our family very closely. A volunteer from the Movement lost several family members due to the collapse of the buildings in which they lived. Only one granddaughter survived and has already been treated in the hospital. Like them, many families wait anxiously among the ruins for news; others mourn their loved ones and many continue to cling to the hope of finding those still missing alive.
Solidarity is part of our identity and these days it becomes tangible. From the very first hours after the earthquake, journeys between Caracas and La Guaira multiplies: private cars, volunteers, parishes, organizations and neighbors bringing water, food, medicines, clothes and tools. Entire communities from other regions of the country that experienced the earthquake very lightly, have spontaneously organized collection centers, sorted donations and prepared the aid that continues to reach the worst affected areas through the Church. Every small initiative, every phone call, every package prepared with care, every person who offers their time, weaves a network of fraternity that supports those who need it most today.
We are also deeply moved by the number of people, both within and outside Venezuela, who wish to help. We haven’t been able to respond to all the messages we have received. Family, friends, members of the Movement and people who simply want to know how we are or ask how they can contribute. We are activating every possible channel so that this enormous generosity can find concrete expression and reach where it is most needed.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to all of them. Thank you for the prayers, for the messages of closeness and for the concrete gestures of solidarity that are already being put into practice. In moments like this, we experience vividly what Chiara Lubich has left us as a guiding horizon: “Be a family”.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is to live in the present moment. Not to anticipate the fear of the next tremor or to remain paralyzed by the magnitude of the suffering. Remaining in the present is, now more than ever, the way to discover what Love asks of us in each moment.
Living the charism of unity, in this context, means giving a concrete response: being bridges where there is isolation, offering fraternity where fear created division and sowing hope where uncertainty seems to prevail.
There’s still a long road ahead. The emergency is not over and reconstruction will take time. Yet amid so much loss, we are also witnessing a humanity that refuses to give up, that organizes itself, that shares the little or much that it has and that reminds us once again that, even when the earth trembles, love can remain the firmest ground on which to rebuild hope.
The Focolare Movement’s Emergency Coordination Team has launched a special fundraising campaign to support the people of Venezuela through Action for a United World (AMU) and Action for New Families (AFN). The donations received will be managed jointly by AMU and AFN to provide the people affected by the June 24, 2026, earthquake with essential aid for food, medical care, housing, and shelter in various cities across the country, in collaboration with local churches.
Every contribution will provide immediate support and allow us to imagine together a future of hope and reconstruction.
Azione per un Mondo Unito ETS (AMU) IBAN: IT 58 S 05018 03200 000011204344 at Banca Popolare Etica Codice SWIFT/BIC: ETICIT22XXX
Azione per Famiglie Nuove ETS | Banca Etica – filiale 1 di Roma – Agenzia n. 0 | Codice IBAN: IT 92 J 05018 03200 000016978561 | BIC/SWIFT: ETICIT22XXX
Reason for payment:: Venezuela Emergency
Tax benefits are available for such donations in many EU countries and in other countries around the world, according to different local regulations.Italian contributors will be able to obtain deductions and allowances from income, according to the rules for non-profit organisations
Some time ago, thanks to modern technology, after many years of not seeing each other my former school classmates reunited: we created a group on WhatsApp. Between anecdotes and old photos, we managed to identify a companion that no one had heard from anymore and we added him to the group.
He told us that he lived on the street. A series of health problems, a battle with cancer, losing his job and family break up had left him with nothing. At first, some of us contributed some money, but faced with a second call for help, the response was silence or rejection.
Even though we hadn’t been close friends at school, I felt couldn’t just look on. I thought that since he had reappeared in my life through that WhatsApp group, I should do something. I couldn’t simply ignore him
I decided to meet him. I wanted to see for myself how he was doing and listen to him. He had spent a few days in a hostel, but had soon ended up back on the street. I didn’t have the means to solve his housing problem or offer him a home, but I felt the need to discern what God wanted from me in that situation.
We met and talked for a long time. I was deeply moved by the decline in his physical health, so I offered to help him with a natural medicine that I could provide so that, at least, he might regain a bit of peace and well-being. But beyond his physical state, I remembered that he had once felt a strong religious vocation and that he had even been on the verge of entering the seminary. I asked him about his faith.
He told me that he had distanced himself from everything; he had not set foot in a church or approached the sacraments for years. With complete sincerity, I advised him that since his illness was progressing and he felt in danger, he should seek refuge in God.
I suggested that he go to Mass, talk to a priest and, if he felt up to it, go to confession. The next day he called me overcome with emotion. He had gone to church, gone to confession and received communion. He thanked me from the bottom of his heart because he realized that, having lost all material things, his relationship with God was the only thing he really had left.
We’re still in touch today. He managed to get a pension and is feeling a little better. I continue to help him with this natural medicine complementary to his treatment and, every now and then, we meet for coffee or I bring him something he needs, like a pair of trainers. But over time I have come to understand that the most important thing was neither medicine nor shoes: it was the fact that someone stopped to talk to him.
Sometimes, a “neighbour” appears in a WhatsApp group and we run the risk of leaving them trapped in virtuality, where no one assumes any responsibility. My friend taught me that being attentive to another person’s needs, even if we cannot provide a definitive solution, is already a lot. If we could all make even a small gesture, how different things would be for other people! Let’s not allow others to be just a message on a screen, let’s make our help concrete, human and, above all, present.
Far more than a simple closing celebration, it was the visible stage of a journey built throughout the year by hundreds of young people across Italy and Albania. It is already looking to the future, aiming higher with the desire to involve many more young people, teams, and initiatives in the years ahead, both across Europe and around the world.
The Expo Fest of Time to Change ended in Castel Gandolfo (Rome, Italy), on 6th-7th June. The programme engaged around 1,300 young people and 105 teams, challenging them to take action through practical projects in solidarity, active citizenship, environmental stewardship, inclusion, and peace for the common good.
Almost 600 youth from 52 teams met. Among the comments collected from participants were: “I have become more aware of my actions and I have paid much more attention to those who find themselves in difficult situations”. “I understand how valuable some friendships are.” “I carry in my heart the beauty of what was born here and the silent strength that these days have generated”. These are some of the impressions gathered from the participants, protagonists of an event that gave voice not only to the 9 finalist teams, but to all the realities involved.
During the event, voting and the final award ceremony took place. The Trent Gen Time to Change team from Trent won first place; Children of the Sun from Taranto ranked second; Time to Change from Milan ranked third. Special prizes were awarded to the teams from Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, the “Alfonso Gatto” High School in Agropoli and the Albanian team Alboomerang.
Through moments of sharing, personal testimonies, music, dance, discussion, workshops and flash mobs, each group was able to tell their contribution to change. At the heart of the event was a large space dedicated to stories: those of young people who have chosen to step outside themselves to meet others; of schools that have transformed civic education into a concrete experience; of local groups that created afterschool programmes, artistic initiatives, environmental projects and acts of solidarity towards people living in vulnerable situations.
The projects presented demonstrated how change can be lived in everyday life. For example the Alfonso Gatto Linguistic High School in Agropoli (Salerno), carried out a project dedicated to the1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Students engaged people in the street, with questions about fundamental rights, handing out symbolic badges to “friends of human rights” and donating copies of the Declaration to those who wished to know it better.
There were 18 young people from Albania. Through the Time to Change programme they took part in theatre and art activities for children, ecological walks, training sessions and meetings with young people welcomed into family homes. Regjina Paluca explained, “In the community, there are young people between the ages of three and twenty. Some told us that they grew up in a family home: they arrived as children and now attend university. It was very touching for our youth. They saw that those thirty young people all live together in the same house, while they, at the end of the day, would each return to their own home. We will continue this work in the future, because the project is spreading rapidly: young people carry a beauty within them that they want to share with their friends.”
A significant part of the journey focussed on personal vulnerability. The experiences of Edoardo, Francesca and Victoria told of isolation, depression, anxiety, bereavement, exclusion and reconciliation. Their stories showed how suffering can become a place of growth, relationship, renewed faith, and openness to others.
The journey was also inspired by a poem written in 2005 by Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, who, in front of “the long, high, grey wall” of Jerusalem, ” stretching through the city, dividing neighbourhoods, streets, lands and families”, reflected on the meaning of her life and the divisions of her Holy Land in the light of Jesus crucified and abandoned, hope against all hope.
During the event, Margaret Karram, presented a travelling trophy to the winning team, Trent Gen Time to Change. The trophy will accompany future editions of the project and will be passed each year to the new winning team.
In her brief greeting, she reminded participants that living peace requires courage, and that peace begins with personal change. “The first peace is Jesus,” she said, “who died for us, but He rose to give us peace and to redeem each one of us.”
As one of the participants wrote, Time to Change “does not limit itself to talking about change, but makes it possible”. The wave started by these young people now continues, reaching ever higher.
Encounter, celebration and commitment: three words that summarise the 35 years of the Economy of Communion (EoC), commemorated from 25th-30th May 2026.More than 400 people participated in a two-phase program. In the first, participants had an immersive experience in 16 Latin American communities and businesses that put the culture of communion into practice. In the second, they gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for an international forum dedicated to celebrating the journey and present reality of the EoC and committing to its future.
Regenerating “wounds” from the inside out
Communion, as a force for regeneration, stops focusing exclusively on the poverty of a territory and instead highlights its social, cultural and spiritual riches. For this reason, that’s where the celebration began: entering the depths of those who suffer daily in order to get in touch with and imagine together a different economy. Sixteen initiatives from three Latin American countries opened their doors to participants for the first part of this celebration. Through group activities, guided visits, participatory exercises and moments of dialogue, each person was able to listen, welcome the reality of the other, encounter it directly, understand it, express it and share it.
“I participated in the experience at the Nuevo Sol Centres in Buenos Aires. What struck me the most was not the poverty or the enormous inequality that exists in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, but the strength with which love weaves communities in this region. The challenges are more difficult, which is why love is more concrete, more active and closer”, said Luz Villafañe, from Tucumán, Argentina.
The Entrepreneurial Journey with the Economy of Communion
After these experiences, the participants met in Buenos Aires on 29th-30th May and took part in a forum held at the “Usina del Arte” Cultural Centre.
Voices from different countries, cultures and social classes, including entrepreneurs, start-uppers, community leaders and indigenous leader, took turns on stage demonstrating the transformative power of this vocation. There were experiences of small and large entrepreneurs, of those whose projects are dedicated to the care of the earth, of those who live interculturality as a richness and make choices of communion as a vocation, as a lifestyle.
Commitments for the Future
The culminating moment of the celebration was a global pact signed by all those present, individually and collectively, to promote, within the economy, a culture that places human relationships at the centre and aims to put regenerative approaches into practice, approaches capable of creating communion. During a global online link up held on the morning of the 30th, almost 300 people joined the Buenos Aires hall, connected from all over the world, to solemnly reaffirm the pact that unites the entire Economy of Communion network.
The EoC also unveiled two new developments to celebrate the present and look to the future: a new visual identity and a new application to connect people, businesses and projects globally. To learn more, visit https://www.globaledc.org/.
This large global community aspires to carry forward the culture of encounter, to work for a more just economy, to recognize the central role of the people in vulnerable situations, and to contribute to the building of more fraternal communities through relationships. As many repeated during the event, “No one is so poor as to have nothing to give and no one is so rich as to have nothing to receive”.
