Thursday 14 November 2019
The project Chance for Tomorrow is extending to a new neighbourhood of Cairo, Egypt.
«This year, after 10 years working in the Shubra district, new horizons of action can be glimpsed, with the opening of a new centre in Fagallah, another district of Cairo’s outskirt, where we expect a lot of boys, girls and their families, to discover together the great wealth that we can be to one another.»
Nelly Khadige of the Koz Kazah Foundation, our counterparts in Egypt, tells us about it:
«Despite the government’s efforts to ensure stability in the country, the economic situation is rapidly getting worse. The causes, internal and external to Egypt, are different, and who pays the highest price are always the poor.»
In the midst of so much suffering, the Koz Kazah Foundation remains a cornerstone of peace and of hope for many, and even of redemption. (more…)
A concert in the middle of the war, the water that returns to town and Christmas greetings; all this in a letter from Syria written by Pascal Bedros.
For the first time I attended a concert of classical music in the middle of a battle. It happens only in Aleppo. In the midst of death a voice of Peace stands up above all the other voices announcing the war, to raise the minds and forget the cold for a while. It looks like the chapter of a modern tragedy that reminds Greek mythology. With few resources, Father Elias Janji with the Naregatsi Choir and a pianist, sang and played Verdi, Mozart, Vivaldi and Karl Orf in a church packed with people despite the intense cold that invades Aleppo in these days, bringing our spirits in another bliss.
Do not forget that not so far from here the tragedy continues with missiles launched from East Aleppo on the West, killing school children and innocent people, while on the east side of the city the Syrian army attack continues incessantly.
Thousands of people (something like sixty thousand so far) managed to escape from Aleppo East arriving in the West area. They say that in the escape some have been taken as hostages and others, hit by gunfire, were killed; there are those who brought their grandmother on their shoulders running in the midst of battle! They were welcomed; they were given to drink and to eat and finally regained their breath. (more…)
Two hundred young people from across Europe have launched a petition to declare 2018 as the “Year of Sustainable and Inclusive Economy”.
The young people of the European project “Challenging the Crisis” presented this petition to the European Parliament. For three years they confronted each other and questioned themselves on how to challenge the crisis and especially its structural causes, which produces injustice, inequality, poverty around the world but also in Europe. The Sustainable and Inclusive Economy (SIE) has been identified as a possible answer to this crisis: an economy at the service of people, inclusive, respectful of the environment and of the human rights, that redesigns the space between public and private. An individual for example becomes “social” and aims to be responsible for the social dignity of all persons, including that of the disadvantaged groups of the population, as a view from the agenda established for 2030: “no one left behind”.
The petition presented to the European Parliament requests that 2018 will be the International Year of the SIE: a year of confrontation, training and focus on institutional policy on new forms of community economy, linked to the territory and its needs, and based on two pillars: social and environmental justice.
In order to be approved it must be signed by half of European Members of Parliament by 1st March 2017. We invite the Members of the European Parliament to sign it !
Finally the festive season has arrived bringing the much-loved Christmas markets: here is where to find ours.
Few things evoke the atmosphere of the holidays like Christmas fairs do: lively, boisterous, bringing colours and sounds and unmistakable scents to the city. Strolling among the stalls is not unusual to see old friends or engage in long conversations with strangers. Like all markets, the Christmas fairs are places of exchange, but with something extra that makes them special.
Some of them directly concern us because groups of friends and supporters of AMU organize them. They are different markets but united by the same goal: to share the joy of Christmas with those who are in need, either close to us or the other side of the world away.
From December 8th to 11th there will be a market in Pignataro Maggiore (Campania, Italy) organized by Together for the Unity of Peoples. There will be put up for sale products from the areas of central Italy hit by the earthquake. The opening hours will be from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and the event will be repeated from 16th to 18th December and then again from 23rd December to 8th January.
On December 10th the AMU group of Scarlino (Tuscany, Italy) will set up a stall in Piazza Agresti, in front of Scarlino Scalo’s Coop store. For sale there will be household linen and knitwear, all prepared by the volunteers of the group. The proceeds will benefit the earthquake victims.
On December 16th in Agno (Ticino, Switzerland), the Choir group ” Note di Dono ” will organise a Christmas market at the elementary school of the village. The proceeds will be donated to the Nest project in Pakistan.
The 20th, 21th and 22st December Palestinian handicrafts will go on sale in Trieste (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy), Piazza Sant’Antonio, as in previous years. The proceeds of the market will go in part to help Palestinian families in need and partly for Burundi projects supported by the AMU headquarters in Trieste.
Thank you in advance for the volunteers engaged in these initiatives and to those who will stop at our stalls!
On December 15th there will be the presentation of the book in Castelmassa (Italy)
«This little book that I wrote recalls my childhood memories, which took place between the city of Milan, where I lived and the countryside of Pula, where my grandparents lived, says the author Enrica Sgariboldi. Above all I wanted to tell my grandchildren and other children what life was like once. The book takes place in 1959.”
Enrica decided to donate the proceeds of the book to AMU and in particular to the Chance for Tomorrow project in Egypt.
It is not the first time that the author of a book devotes the proceeds to an AMU project: an original way to share their talents. Thank you so much Enrica!
The event is scheduled for December 15th at 5 p.m. at the Council Chamber of the City of Castelmassa.
