{"id":305672,"date":"2017-11-21T01:10:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T00:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-many-faces-of-poverty\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:35:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:35:51","slug":"the-many-faces-of-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-many-faces-of-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Many Faces of Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PopeThe news that was announced on June 13th by Pope Francis, <\/strong>who wished there to be an international day dedicated to the poor, appeared totally in line with his pontificate that is so attentive to the needs of the vulnerable and discarded by society. The response from associations, movements and institutions,<\/strong> as well single individuals and groups, was surprising. The<\/strong> Focolare Movement<\/a> in<\/strong> Italy<\/a> embraced the invitation to \u201ccreate moments of encounter and friendship, solidarity and concrete help,\u201d to love \u201cnot only with words, but with deeds.\u201d \u201cAlthough we can learn from the poor,\u201d say Rosalba Poli and Andrea Goller who are responsible for the Focolare in Italy,<\/strong> \u201cnonetheless those who have more are called to give.\u201d Not alms, not symbolic gesture to put ones conscience at peace; the invitation is to step out of our comfort zone and our certainties,\u201d as the Pope says, \u201c<\/strong>to go out to meet the thousands of faces of poverty.\u201d In Italy also the phenomenon is a cause of concern. <\/strong>According to a recent government report, nearly 5 million people are living in \u201cabsolute poverty.\u201d Eight million and a half suffer \u201crelative poverty.\u201d It is a poverty of a thousand faces: marginalization, unemployment, violence, lack of aid.\u00a0 And mostly isolation, because being poor first of all means being excluded. \"20171121-01\"<\/strong>\u201cThe Day of the Poor takes us back to a primary aspect of the Focolare\u2019s spirituality<\/a>, the communion of goods,\u201d Poli and Goller explain.<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s a practice that has led to many social projects over the years, inspired by the desire to imitate the custom in the early Christian communities where no one was needy among them. Some of our projects include Arcobaleno Association<\/a>, which has been active in Milan for more than 30 years; the La Pira Center<\/a> for you foreigners in Florence; the Sempre Persona Project <\/a>that helps prisoners to become reinserted into society and offers assistance to their families. Then, the Apriamoci Project<\/a> from the Trentino More cultural association, such as Facciamo Casa Insieme<\/a>. Others distribute food, like the \u00a0l\u2019Associazione Solidariet\u00e0<\/a> in Reggio Emilia, B&F<\/a> in Ascoli, Associazione Citt\u00e0 Fraterna<\/a> and Comitato Umanit\u00e0 Nuova<\/a> in Genoa. RomAmor<\/a> is involved in helping the homeless around the Ostiense Train Stations, whereas other projects welcome refugees in Lampedusa and Ventimiglia. In Pomigliano d\u2019Arco, the Legami di Solidariet\u00e0<\/a> work in an area that is strongly marked by unemployment where mutuality and sharing has made a comeback. Following the earthquake in central Italy<\/strong>, several Solidarity Buying Groups were instituted by the RImPRESA<\/a> Project to provide on site support for local economic activities that had been damaged in the earthquake. Alongside the consolidated projects, <\/strong>other projects have begun in the north and south of the country, often networking with institutions or associations that work in the social field. The intent is to become stable supporters of those living in poverty. From Milan to Sicily, from Messina to Udine, <\/strong>there are food banks, listening centres, soup kitchens, recycling projects. There is also a home for separated parents, at the city gate of Cagliari<\/strong>. Meanwhile, just a few days from its activation, the App Fag-8<\/strong> project already has thousands of subscriptions. It\u2019s a technological evolution of the custom of putting ones possessions in common, material things and also talents, ideas. By downloading the app it is possible for someone to share (also in someone else\u2019s account), a material object, a project or one\u2019s own time. It is a tool connected to total local a national networks, that allows one to find out in a short time whether what I\u2019m looking for is available, or if I can answer someone else\u2019s need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Focolare Movement has also responded to the Pope\u2019s appeal for a \u201cDay of the Poor\u201d. Pope Francis had established it on last November 19th. A look at some of the efforts from the North to the South of Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}