I’m Letícia Alves and I live in the north of Brazil, in Pará.
In 2019 I took part in the Amazon Project, and for 2 weeks a group of volunteers and I dedicated our holidays to living with the people of the lower Amazon, in the city of Óbidos.
Before embarking on this adventure, I wondered if I would be able to give myself completely to this experience, which was set in a reality so different from my own. During the project we visited some riverside communities living on the banks of the Amazon River, and everyone welcomed us with unrivalled love.
We provided health, legal and family support services, but the most important thing was to listen deeply and share the lives, stories and difficulties of those we met. The stories were all very diverse: the lack of drinking water, the child who had a toothbrush for the whole family, or even the son who wanted to kill his mother… The more we listened, the more we understood the meaning of our presence there.
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family TOGETHER”
LS, 13
And among so many stories, I was able to see how much we can make a difference to people’s lives: how much just listening makes a difference, how much a bottle of drinking water makes all the difference.
The project was more than special. We were able to plant a seed of love in the midst of so much suffering and “building together” made us grow. When Jesus is present among us, everything becomes inspiring, full of light and joy.
It wasn’t something I lived for just 2 weeks and that was it, but it was an experience that really transformed my life, I felt a strong presence of God and that gave me the strength to embrace the sufferings of humanity that surround me in this daily construction of a united world.
My name is Francisco. I was born in Juruti in the Amazon, a town near Óbidos. I was surprised to learn that people from different parts of Brazil were travelling across the country to give of themselves to take care of my people and I wanted to join them.
What struck me most was the happiness among everyone, the volunteers and the local people, who even though they lived with very few material possessions, experienced the greatness of God’s love.
After experiencing the Amazonia project in Óbidos, I returned to Juruti with a new outlook and the desire to continue this mission, but in my own town. Over there, I saw the same needs that I had found in Óbidos. This desire became not just mine, but that of our entire community, which embraced the cause. Together we came up with the idea and gave birth to the Amazonia project in the community of São Pedro with the aim of listening and responding to the “cry” of those who need it most, of those who are often not heard. We chose a community on the mainland, began to monitor their needs and then went in search of professionals who could help as volunteers.
With the collaboration of several people, we brought the life of the Gospel, medical care, psychological care, medicines and dental care to that entire community. Above all, we tried to stop and listen to the difficulties and joys of those we met.
I have one certainty: in order to build a more fraternal and united world, we are called to listen to the cries of those who suffer around us and to act, with the certainty that everything done with love is not small and can change the world!
The young people of the Focolare Movement, in conjunction with the Genfest in Brazil, also organised 44 local editions of the Genfest in various countries around the world. Here are some pictures of the events in the various countries and some short testimonies from Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, Slovakia and Korea.
Genfest 2024, an international event promoted by the young people of the Focolare Movement, took place in Brazil in July and was attended by over 4,000 young people from all over the world. This event was divided into three phases.
In the first, the young people volunteered in some social projects in various countries of Latin America.
In the second phase the young people gathered together in the big arena of Aparecida to experience two days of celebration and sharing testimonies of life.
In phase three they then divided into small communities according to their professional experience to put into practice the ideal of unity and fraternity of Chiara Lubich.
The third phase of Genfest 2024, held in Aparecida, Brazil, included workshops organized by so-called United World Communities – meeting places where young people can share their talents and passions. These communities offer the opportunity to discover talented people, concrete forms of commitment and initiate actions and projects aimed at building a more united world, which seek to respond to the local and global challenges of today’s world; to activate processes of personal and collective change; and to grow fraternity and reciprocity in all dimensions of human life. An important feature of these communitites is that they are the fruits of work between people of different generations.
Continuing the experiences of the previous phases of Genfest, in this third phase the youth were able to participate in workshops in different areas, whose methodology was based on fraternity and dialogue, as a proof for projects and actions that can now be developed in the “glocal” sphere (local projects with a global perspective). Activities were held in the areas of economics and work, cross-culture and dialogue, spirituality and human rights, health and ecology, art and social engagement, education and research, communication and media, and active citizenship and politics. The teams responsible for running the workshops were composed of young people and professionals who worked intensively for months to organize these activities.
From now on, Communities will have a working method that consists of three steps: Learning, Acting, and Sharing. The first (to Learn) is an in-depth exploration and analysis of the most current themes and issues in each community, with the goal of identifying problems and presenting solutions. The next phase (Take Action) is the implementation of actions with primarily local impact, but with a global perspective. Finally, in the third phase (Sharing), it is proposed that the community promote spaces for ongoing exchange and dialogue between initiatives, with the aim of strengthening the global collaboration network. An application-the United World Communities WebApp, -has been created as a tool for sharing ideas, experiences and news, as well as promoting collaborative projects.
“God has visited everyone’s heart.”
Al termine della terza fase del Genfest, le Communities hanno presentato in modo creativo le loro impressioni e alcuni dei risultati delle attività svolte nei giorni precedenti. Da questo lavoro è nato il documento “The United World Community: One Family, One Common Home”, che sarà il contributo dei partecipanti del Genfest 2024 al “Summit of the Future” delle Nazioni Unite del prossimo settembre. Secondo i giovani che hanno presentato il testo, esso non è un documento conclusivo, ma vuole essere un “programma di vita e di lavoro” per le varie United World Communities, oltre che una testimonianza da presentare al “Summit of the Future”.
“With our communities we don’t want to make demands, formulate slogans or complain about political leaders,” the young people said. “Instead, we seek to name our common dreams, dreams of a united world. Personal and communal dreams, which will guide us in our activities in the coming years.” They concluded, “We hope that by living them, ‘together’ and step by step, they will become signs of hope for others.”
Margaret Karram and Jesús Morán, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, also spoke at the conclusion of Genfest 2024. Jesús Morán said that although the experience of care has been the most lived experience in human history, it is not the one that has been reflected on the most.
This has begun to change, as was demonstrated at the Genfest, in which care emerged as a response to the need for human dignity. In this sense, he concluded, it is important that young people remain connected to this global network of generative communities. Margaret Karram, for her part, said she has seen throughout the Genfest experience that young people have given tangible witness to their faith and are already in action to build a united world. Regarding Phase 3 in particular, she emphasized the richness of this experience because of its creativity, intergenerational and intercultural imprint, and the fact that, through the communities, there is a concrete possibility of living the same Genfest experience in one’s daily life. She concluded by calling on the young people to be the protagonists of these communities, the foundation of which is unity. “Please do not miss this unique opportunity that we are experiencing here: God has visited the heart of each of us and is now calling everyone to be protagonists and bearers of unity in the various areas in which they are involved”.
Beginning on July 19, 2024, the second phase of Genfest 2024, the event and the youth of the Focolare Movement, concluded its program on July 21, 2024 with the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Aparecida, in Aparecida (São Paulo), Brazil. The central event of Genfest, which for the first time had its international version on the Latin American continent, brought together about 4,000 participants from more than 50 countries and, from the beginning, was marked by contagious joy. In addition, thousands of people around the world followed part of the program via streaming.
With the theme “Together to Care,” the young people gathered at the “Father Vítor Coelho de Almeida Event Center” promoted an intense program that combined celebration, art, creativity and testimony, an expression of the conviction that building universal fraternity requires concrete initiatives to take care of life on the planet, especially in terms of caring for people in different conditions of vulnerability and nature, as Pope Francis insistently requested.
Opening Ceremony
At the inauguration, the young people were welcomed by the Archbishop of Aparecida, Msgr. Orlando Brandes; the apostolic nuncio to Brazil, Msgr. Giambattista Diquattro; the rector of the Aparecida Shrine, Father Eduardo Catalfo; and the president of the Focolare Movement, Margaret Karram, among the dignitaries present. Bishop Orlando Brandes read a message sent by Cardinal Piero Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, on behalf of Pope Francis. “We know how to react with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that is not limited to words,” was the message read. In her words of greeting to the youth, Margaret Karram emphasized that “together, our dreams will come true.” Afterwards, the youth were treated to a “Latin American party” with artistic performances typical of different countries. It was an explosion of joy that involved everyone.
Day 2
A time to find directions, or more precisely, paths, for a united world. This is how the second day of the second phase of Genfest 2024 began. On the one hand, young people from around the world told how they tried to build fraternal relationships in their environments. This was the case, for example, of Adelina, from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, who had to deal with the tragedy caused by the rains that hit her city in May 2024, and Joseph, from Sierra Leone, who was separated from his family as a child and recruited by militiamen fighting the African country’s government troops with acts of violence. Artistic moments drew attention to some major issues in the world today, such as ecology and citizenship, while so-called spark changers, specialists in different areas, offered the audience some brief reflections that could bring about change in the world.
Saturday’s program also included a “preview” of Genfest Phase 3: workshops were held on different themes, always with a view to “caring” for life in its different expressions. Finally, a journey around the world with stories of personal resilience or social action, but all that had fraternity as their motivation to “embrace humanity and initiate change.” The second day’s program was concluded on the Genfest stage which saw a number of young people from Turkey, Australia, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Italy and Colombia telling how they have faced or helped others cope with grief when it seems to take away the meaning of life. The presentations, however, were not limited to personal stories. A wide variety of social initiatives were also presented on stage, such as Rimarishun, a cross-cultural project in Ecuador. Also presenting from Brazil were the Amazon Project, Quilombo Rio dos Macacos di Salvador (Afro-descendant communities) and La Casa do Menor, whose choreography received a standing ovation.
Closing Ceremony
The program for the final day of the second phase of Genfest 2024 began by looking to the past to think about the future. Some of the projects launched at the last Genfest in 2018 were recalled and have already begun to bear fruit, even in the real sense, as in the case of planting trees in areas prone to degradation. Following the example of what was done in the last Genfest in Manila, Philippines, some projects were presented to be continued after these days.
The first project will start with the third phase of Genfest. These are the “United World Communities,” which will bring together young people-including those who could not attend the event in Aparecida-in groups by areas of knowledge, from economics to work, from politics to citizenship. Young people interested in the various areas will be able to sign up for these communities based on their “passion,” as the organizers put it.
An important tool for implementing these communities is the United World Project. Launched in 2012 at Genfest in Budapest, Hungary, it is in fact a program to spread fraternity on a large scale and bring together actions in this direction, making it possible to share experiences with many young people around the world.
Another action born of this Genfest, which was more immediate, is the launch of a questionnaire to collect proposals from young people for the “ Pact for the Future,” a manifesto that will be presented at the Summit of the Future, an international summit to be organized by the UN in September 2024.
Building international communities requires dialogue. Much of the session was devoted to this theme. Rabbi Silvina Chemen and a young Muslim leader, Israa Safieddine, shared how they try to build dialogue.
Fourteen young Latin Americans from six Christian churches presented Ikuméni, a workshop of ecumenical and interreligious best practices. These are all initiatives whose ultimate goal is peacebuilding, the theme to which the entire last part of the program was devoted.
Carlos Palma from Uruguay presented the Living Peace project. A video of Chiara Lubich reminded how peace can be built today: by living mutual love.
The young Genfest participants with flags from all countries finally paraded, calling for peace in every nation. At the end, Focolare Movement President Margaret Karram called on everyone to be peacemakers, breaking down barriers that divide people and taking the initiative to forgive: “Let this Genfest be a time to say yes to peace,” she concluded.
