{"id":342868,"date":"2014-03-11T06:10:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T05:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/portugal-young-people-take-action-against-social-exclusion\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:12:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:12:02","slug":"portugal-young-people-take-action-against-social-exclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/portugal-young-people-take-action-against-social-exclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal. Young People Take Action Against Social Exclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-102316 alignleft\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;margin-top: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Portogallo-20.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"316\" height=\"188\" \/><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 13px\"><strong>With the elderly in a rest home<\/strong>; with inmates at a local prison; in a social assistance institute and with handicapped peers in a special education centre. These are not places that young people would normally go to spend their time. But last February 8, 2014, a group of a hundred <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/movimento-dei-focolari\/un-popolo\/giovani-per-un-mondo-unito\/\">Youth For A United World<\/a> from <strong>Caldas da Rainha<\/strong>. the western region of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/focolare-worldwide\/europa\/portogallo\/\">Portugal <\/a>wanted to send a signal to the city, to shake off some of the widespread indifference.<strong> <\/strong><\/span>  <strong>The starting point <\/strong>was a meeting at the Parish Community Centre where they identified their goal: <strong>to give a witness of <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/chiara-lubich\/spiritualita-dellunita\/amore-al-fratello\/\">brotherly <\/a>love and the conviction that living for a united world can be the answer to many of today\u2019s challenges, inspired by the witness of young people from around the world. Then they split into groups and visited several places in the city where there was a need of help, or where they could draw attention to a need.  At the request of the request of the Municipality they <strong>repainted the walls <\/strong>of a youth centre. They offered a smile, tickets and coffee to unsuspecting passers-by. It was a unique experience for the citizens of Caldas da Reinha who immediately welcomed the enthusiasm and conviction of the young people.  <strong>\u201cIf everybody did a little something right there where they are, <\/strong>everything could change,\u2019 declared Assistant Mayor Hugo Oliveira.  <img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-102300\" style=\"margin-left: 10px;margin-right: 10px;border: 0px none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Portogallo-2-421x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"325\" height=\"154\" \/>One young man who visited some prison inmates recounted: <strong>\u201cI went expecting to give, and I was the one who <\/strong><strong>received.\u201d <\/strong>Some of the inmates expressed their desire to join the young people in creating a more united world. Following their visit, the inmates wrote: \u201cI\u2019ll try to forgive. . . .\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll enter into contact with my family again.\u201d  <strong>It was an intense day <\/strong>which didn\u2019t go by unnoticed and which involved so many people. But the challenge has only just begun say the young people: \u201cWe want to continue this path of universal brotherhood in the places where we live, beginning with small gestures, in our families, relationships with friends, at school and at work.\u201d  <strong>Then the biggest challenges!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Around a hundred young people from Caldas da Rainha, Portugal launched a Day of Solidarity entitled: Revolutionise Your City With Love, with multiple projects and activities geared towards the most marginalised.<\/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":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342868","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\/342868","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=342868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}