Volunteering, flash mobs, performances, choreographies, workshops, theatre, music, prayer, testimonies, projects, games, and dances. The 2024 Genfest is all this and much more because “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” This is how the Focolare Movement in Italy presents the “Genfest” youth festival, which will also take place in Tuscany, Lazio, and Calabria, with different programs and initiatives. The event will be connected to the global Genfest, entitled “Together to Care,” aiming to “build a world of fraternity beyond cultural, ethnic, and religious differences by caring for the planet and people, especially the most vulnerable.”
On 12th July in Tuscany, the “Embrace Humanity” project will kick off. 100 young people aged 18 to 25 will engage in social volunteering projects. In Florence, they will collaborate with the Amici della Terra onlus, Caritas Firenze, and the Angeli del Bello Foundation. In Prato, they will work at the “Cieli aperti” summer camp and the “Giorgio La Pira” soup kitchen. In Massa, they will cooperate with Casa di Betania, the Italian Sports Centre and the diocesan Caritas. In Pistoia, the project involves the “Canto di primavera del sogno antico” farm, the parish of San Pietro Casalguidi, Nuovi Orizzonti, the Policoro Project, and the IL TANDEM Association. In Grosseto, they will participate in the project: the Nomadelfia Community, the Bandus association, and the RockLand musical association. In Lucca, the young people will work at the Villaggio del fanciullo and the diocesan Caritas.
In Loppiano, simultaneously with the “big festival” in Brazil to be held in Aparecida from July 19 to 21, there will be a series of workshops, projects, and moments of sharing for the final phase of the initiative. In Rome, from 22nd- 25th July, thirty young people will join social actions and workshops with associations committed to fighting poverty, disability and accessibility in the San Lorenzo neighborhood. There will be barbecues, game nights, and a “Rome by night” evening.
From 26th-30th July, the event will move to Lamezia Terme in Calabria, where 400 young people from Calabria, Sicily, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Sardinia, representatives from other regions of Italy, and from Palestine, Egypt, and Albania are expected. There will be a video greeting from Brazil by Margaret Karram (President of the Focolari Movement).
M. Chiara Biagioni
Souorce: SIR
Agenzia d’informazione
