At the end of the path as a Preparatory Committee for our country and on the eve of the presentation of the request for recognition as a National Committee, we had planned meetings throughout the national territory to tell the general work of OMEP and to present some specific projects for Italy. Due to the global medical emergency and the particularly critical situation that has affected our country, we have had to readjust our plans.However, we managed to keep the collaboration active for a special event in which we particularly wanted to participate.
These were the celebrations for the 50 anniversary of the International Mother Earth Day.
This important event reminds us of our belonging to Nature as a source of life without which we could not exist; it also reminds us that our common home needs utmost consideration and best care. In fact, where there is a mother, there is always a child: a that child is us and all the other living creatures.On this day, in fact, we recognize the Earth as a living, complex, changing, diversified, evolving subject, and therefore also the bearer of fundamental rights: as to exist, to develop, to regenerate, and to be respected.
The #OnePeopleOnePlanet multimedia marathon, broadcast live on the Italian public TV channel of RAI, was an integral part of the #Earthrise global event which involved 193 countries around the world. The event was organized by the Italian headquarters of the Earth Day Network, active in more than one hundred countries, and by the Focolare Movement, a current of spiritual and social renewal present all over the world.
Hundreds of authoritative international testimonies have joined in the appeal for a post-pandemic reconstruction more attentive to the Planet and the happiness of Man.The contents of the Italian marathon have received a hundred million views from all over the world and as many people have made concrete commitments to protect the planet.
A special harmony was detected between the messages of António Guterres, Pope Francis and Bartholomew I on the need to take charge of the most fragile people as the only way to overcome global challenges and on the need to create a movement from below for an ecological conversion in every part of the world.
OMEP Italia was a technical-scientific partner for the section relating to childhood and collaborated in adapting specific content for the online platform. For the occasion, we made, as original contributions, a presentation video of our entire Organization and a series of videos to illustrate to the youngest children all the 17 objectives of sustainable development with the use of puppets.
We have chosen to launch, on the occasion of this day, a clear message: THE WORLD IS OF CHILDREN. We strongly wanted to say that investing, at this moment, in quality education and care, coincides directly with taking care of the Planet: it is, in fact, demonstrated to be the best investment for the future.It is no coincidence that in the OMEP logo little girls and little boys are represented who, holding hands, make a tour around the world in the act of embracing and protecting it.
This collaboration has proven to be particularly valuable and fruitful, because our first representative at OMEP in 1949, Maria Luisa Brazil, was part of the Focolare Movement at the time.
She used these words to represent the sense of brotherhood that work in favor of childhood was able to arouse during the first World Assembly of the Organization:
“Suddenly, every child in the world was there, with a clear look and raised arms to beg; and silence returned, and the humble ability to listen and talk. “
Listening, dialoguing and cooperating are the methods to rethink together the new normality that awaits us: to develop a new world view with awareness, wisdom and humility, for adults and children.
Matteo Corbucci
President of the Italian Preparatory Committee
Click here to see the contents for the Earth Day: https://www.onepeopleoneplanet.it/bambini-ragazzi (scroll to find contents with the OMEP logo)
Video presentation for OMEP (in italian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZPNQeltf6U&feature=youtu.be
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