{"id":342120,"date":"2013-07-25T05:36:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T03:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/social-school-2013-where-is-your-brother\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:09:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:09:48","slug":"social-school-2013-where-is-your-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/social-school-2013-where-is-your-brother\/","title":{"rendered":"Social School 2013: Where is your brother?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_7180.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-home_top wp-image-89087\" style=\"margin: 5px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_7180-421x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"421\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;--><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cI arrived at a time of crisis, searching for answers to social and existential questions, and here I\u2019ve found a powerful answer.\u201d So says one of the many people who came from all over the Southern Cone (Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina) to take part in the School for Social Studies (EDS) that was held on July 6-8, 2013 at Mariapolis Lia, one of the Focolare\u2019s small towns in Argentina.<span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_7155.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-89086\" style=\"margin: 5px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_7155-250x187.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">There were three days of intense reflection and dialogue, which took off from the life experience of people engaged in human development. Some had many years of experience and others were just beginning. They worked together, trying to give answer to that fundamental question that is put to Cain by God: \u201cWhere is your brother?\u201d It is a rather disturbing question that happened to coincide in those days with the strong appeal made by Pope Francis while visiting the island of Lampedusa, Italy where many African migrants land in the hope of finding better living conditions, and where many are often shipwrecked. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cWhat has most struck me during these days is seeing so many people from so many different geographical areas working at all levels of society, but all working with the same objective in mind: to love. Everything was so important that I want to start applying it right away.\u201d The projects and activities in which those attending are involved are geared towards restoring human dignity among garbage heaps, health and community centres, centres for educational training and assistance, projects for the preservation of indigenous cultures, the promotion of social tourism, centres for the disabled, volunteer programmes in several NGOs and State entities, project administration, homeless shelters, social centres, trade unionists, business directors, politicians. . . The very fact of having all these people together to share their experiences was already very enriching. <span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The course was focused more on the social interests of the participants and their fields of endeavour rather than academic debates. And it favoured \u201cgathering knowledge that was based on life experiences.\u201d<span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_7060.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-89089\" style=\"margin: 5px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_7060-250x187.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI take many tools and ideas with me, which I can apply to social projects in one of the high risk quarters where we are working.\u201d \u201cExpectations were amply met: I\u2019ve attended previous courses and I feel that we are gradually growing in this call to social involvement in our cities.\u201d \u201cThanks a million! Here we have learned <em>to be<\/em> in order to return home and <em>do<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>250 people from the Latin America attend the \u201cIgino Giordani School for Social Studies\u201d in response to the appeal made by Pope Francis in Lampedusa that our suffering brothers and sisters be welcomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342120","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}