Myanmar, Thailand,Vietnam: Young people give hope
The young people in Yangon
“Sport for Peace”(Vietnam)
Thailand: the welcome centre for youth from different tribes
“Petite flamme”: The Miracle Continues
A project which, in the outskirts of Kinshasa – capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo – would like to give teens an adequate education and nutrition, medical treatment and clothing is known as Petite Flamme (Little Flame) and it has been taking care of 1650 children inserted in 9 schools. “It has already been 17 years that I have been accompanying this project,” says Edi, project collaborator for the Focolare Movement, “which for the past 19 years we have taken ahead thanks to the “Support at a Distance” project of the New Families Movement. Aside from the children, the teachers and their families are also benefited, since they have a job even if the salary is a modest one, in a country where the unemployment rate exceeds 80%.” 
There are countlesss examples of the concrete support that the project is able to give. “For example,” Edi continues, “a single-mother in difficulty was able to obtain a diploma in sewing, and is now able to provide food for her child and for herself. Or in another instance, an orphaned teenage boy will be the first to graduate in mathematics and computer science at the University of Kinshasa”. At Petite Flamme we also welcome unsighted children who follow a formation course especially made for them. And once they have completed their studies, the teens are not left without any means of livelihood: the teenage girls who have received a diploma in dressmaking, for example, will be given a sewing machine so that they can start their own professional activity. “These children, receive a special formation in music,” Edi explains, “and they receive as a gift a classical guitar. During the graduation celebration a blind boy sang for everyone a song composed by all of them as a gift, and to thank their parents for having taken care of them despite the difficulties that their situation involves, especially in a poor country.”
Jonathan (left) with his classmates
The United World Week 2014 begins
The worldwide link-up will start from Nairobi (http://live.dev.focolare.org/y4uw/) when on the 1° of May, at 1 o’clock Italian time, youth from five continents will be linked together to launch the United World Week 2014 (UWW): “Bridging cultures”, a galaxy of activities and actions of the Youth for a United World (YFUW) in the five continents, centered on reciprocal sharing. Other link-ups are foreseen with Japan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Algeria, Portugal, Brazil. In Nairobi (Kenya) about a hundred young people have arrived: half of them represent the African peoples of the sub-Saharan area and half from the other continents.
“Sharing with Africa”. This is the motto to express the reciprocity that the 2014 edition of the UWW would like to realize with the African continent, emblem of colours, culture and challenges, to deepen some pillars of the African culture, in a reciprocal sharing of treasures.
Loppiano (Italy), just like every year, will be transformed into a big plaza (#Spiazzaci) to give visibility to an different Italy with the initiatives that are going on regarding legality, interrelogious dialogue and immigration.
If you want to know more, go to:www.facebook.com/y4uw.international?fref=ts
Maria Voce, president of the Focolare Movement, expressed to the youth her gratitude for the “committment” and the “stubborn courage” they have in “pursuing the objectives of the United World, immersed in the complex situations and in the diversified realities of the world today”. It is “a huge construction site” she added, but we are dealing with God’s dream, as Chiara Lubich loved to call it.” Assuring all those who “ identify themselves with the ideals of the Focolare Movement” of her support, she recalled the wish that John Paul II directed at the YFUW: “Only those who look to the future will make history”, concluding, “It is history, as leaven in thedough, that we are building here and now” with many others.
The 1° of May, aside from the above, will launch the Atlas of fraternity, a first report on 800 fragments of fraternity, courageous actions that propagate in the cities, that build bridges between people, groups and cultures, that open roads of dialogue and indicate new pathways for the communities. An ideal journey among the meridians and the parallels of the Globe that demonstarte how fraternity in action can cover the world. It makes up the first document of the United World Project (UWP) after the Genfest 2012 in Budapest, it can be found on www.unitedworldproject.org.
8th UNESCO Youth Forum: Ideas in Action
For the first time the Focolare’s Youth for a United World and their United World Project take part in the 8th UNESCO Youth Forum held in Paris, France on October 29-31, 2013. Five hundred young people from 150 countries took part in a workshop by and for young people, which has been meeting biyearly since 1999. The forum, which is an integral part of the UNESCO General Conference, aims at creating synergies among United Nations organizations and other organizations and public institutions that work in the youth sector.
Main topics of the 8th forum: “Young people and social inclusion: civil involvement; dialogue and skills development,” which were chosen through an online survey of the 2500 young people. In line with the UNESCO operating strategy for young people 2014-2021, recommendations were presented to the 195 member states at the 37th UNESCO General Conference which met on November 5-20, 2013. Moreover, this year the young people chose 15 action projects – IED from the five UNESCO “regions” – that were given the label Youth Forum UNESCO.
Contatti attraverso lo United World Project con l’UNESCO c’erano già stati presso 11 commissioni nazionali negli scorsi mesi. Tutti passi di un cammino di conoscenza reciproca che continua.Stella from Hong Kong, Anne Cecile from France and Joaquin from Argentina were members of the Youth for a United World delegation (youth section of the New Humanity NGO), whose attendance had been propelled by the work that is being carried out with the United World Project, launched last year at the Genfest in Hungary, promoting universal brotherhood in various environments.
At the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Youth for a United World reported a “revolution” in putting up the organisation of the forum with an invasion of young volunteers. The work carried out in the work groups and in the plenary session was characterized by an exchange of experiences and good practices. Among the recommendations that were accepted was one from the Youth for a United World: “the promotion of intergenerational opportunities, as a fruit of living for fraternity,” reported Joaquin.
The conference concluded with the speech by the president of the Katalin Bogyay General Conference who spoke at the Genfest in Budapest about a traditional African teaching called Ubuntu (I am because we are). The next phase of the United World Project will be held on May 1st in Nairobi and be called: Sharing With Africa. Stella went on to say: “These words had particular resonance for us,” because “such occasions allow us to see that there is a path toward a united world here as well. Different, yes, but so involved in solving problems together, like one big family.”
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Óscar Arias Sánchez adheres to United World Project
Shared commitment to peace. This triggered an immediate understanding between the delegation from Youth for a United World (YUW) and Nobel 1987 Peace Prize recipient and the then president of Costa Rica. Arias had been visiting Rome to attend a Community of St. Egidio conference on the United Nation’s Arms Trade Treaty, and an audience with Pope Francis. The purpose of the meeting was to find forms of collaboration with the Arias Foundation for peace and human development , since the YUW already work for peace and brotherhood. The young people who were present at the meeting from several nations recounted the history of their efforts for peace, beginning from the 350 thousand signatures they collected during the Cold War and handed over to embassies of the of the USSR and the United States in Geneva, Switzerland (November 1985). They went on to present the Time Out launched by Chiara Lubich in September 1990 during the Persian Gulf Crisis; the UNESCO Award for Educating for Peace; the 2012 Genfest in Budapest, Hungary where the United World Project was launched; and the recent meeting between Maria Voce and the Focolare communities of the Middle East that was held in Amman, Jordan, and followed by the concert for peace held by YUW from regions where there is conflict. The Nobel laureat presented to the young people what the Arias Foundation for peace and human development has achieved from its beginnings, its current challenges and future dreams. For example, since there are so many war museums, why not build a Peace Museum? Moreover, Sanchez proposed collaborating with the recently approved UN Arms Trade Treaty that is aimed at putting an end to the marketing of small arms which, in his opinion, are the cause of most of fatalities worldwide. Basing himself on his own experience as President of a nation that by constitution does not have a military army, he affirmed that the reduction of arms would allow many countries to share economic resources that could then be allocated to finding solutions to social problems, such as access to education, health care, protection of the environment and, not least of all, the drama of world poverty. In conclusion he underscored the need for young people be deeply involved in their education so that they will be prepared to create a culture of peace and brotherhood, because: “in a world where egoism and greed seem to prevail, young people are the first ones being called upon to engage new values within society, such as solidarity, suffering together, generosity and love.” 
“Before saying goodbye to us,” Olga from Costa Rica recounts, “he wished to personally adhere to our project (UWP) by signing the commitment statement to live the culture of fraternity, uniting himself to the 62,000 other signees from around the world.” “It doesn’t happen every day that you meet someone of this level,” added Iggy from New Zealand: “cultured and pragmatic, but also very simple. I felt very much at home with him.” The conversation went on for an hour, during which many projects and goals were shared. The next big event for the Youth for a United World is the Youth Forum at UNESCO in October 2013. “It will be a training course in which our ideal of fraternity will be presented and explained” says one of the youths who will be representing the Youth for a United World, the youth section of the New Humanity Movement.