Author: Maria Arias

John Paul II Foundation / Articles posted by Maria Arias

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Magazine, News
April 8, 2025

Not one, but multiple overlapping crises are gripping the Middle East, putting millions of people to the test. Famine, conflict and forced migration have made food insecurity chronic. In Gaza, 85 percent of the population struggles to feed itself; in Iraq, 40 percent of arable land is threatened by desertification. Political instability has made the Middle East the macro-region with the highest number of displaced people in the world. For example, Lebanon is home to more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees, despite its collapsing economy; in Palestine, 1.7 million people have lost their homes. In addition to the basic rights to nutrition and housing, the right to education has also taken a back seat. In Lebanon, many schools have closed, leaving 30 percent of school-age refugees uneducated. In Iraq, by contrast, a lack of teachers and funding makes access to schooling even more difficult. People with disabilities remain on the margins: less than 2 percent of...

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Magazine, News
April 8, 2025

With the "Christmas in Palestine" campaign we raised 40,000€, thanks to donations from our supporters. This sum will fund a new cycle of the "A Safe Place" project, with 3 workshops in theater therapy, drama therapy and music therapy at "House of Peace" in Bethlehem. In February alone, about 40 children from "SOS" Villages, including orphans from the Gaza conflict, participated in the activities. Involving both Gaza and Bethlehem children is a key achievement for us: thanks to our workshops, they are acquiring tools to cope with and overcome the traumas of war. Conscious breathing teaches the rhythm of music, but it also helps calm the anxiety that pervades them at the sound of sirens. Closing their eyes tightly before going on stage also helps them imagine a colorful world away from the rubble. Learning to express emotions such as anxiety, sadness and anger is the first step to coping with them and imagining a future of life....

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Magazine, News
April 8, 2025

Renovations at the "House of Peace" in Bethlehem are progressing at full speed! Thanks to the generosity of a loyal donor, we will soon have new spaces to accommodate even more Palestinian children. The structural intervention concerns a hitherto inaccessible area, which needed complete restoration to become a functional environment. Thus the John Paul II Foundation will be able to continue to ensure a better future for children and their families. The space will be dedicated to training and psychological support: a "Safe Place" where children will be able to express themselves and educators will be able to do their work better. We are counting on the work being completed as soon as possible to inaugurate a new phase of the "Peace House" at Easter time: a perfect time to celebrate the hope of a better future for children....

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Magazine
April 8, 2025

On June 1, 2024, AID project 012970-01-3 "In Action for your Rights! Protecting the Christian minority and creating a culture of human rights in Iraq," funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). This is the third project that the John Paul II Foundation is carrying out in Iraq on behalf of Christians, drawing on a fund allocated by the Italian government for the protection of the freedom of Christian minorities in crisis contexts. The initiative takes place in the country's two most important cities: Baghdad, the political and administrative capital, and Basra, the economic capital. In Baghdad, 20 women have already completed a vocational training course as hairdressers, while 13 workers from the Rehabilitation Center of "Caritas Iraq" have followed a path to retrain their skills supported by Italian experts. A total of 400 students and teachers were involved in a training cycle in 4...

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Press Releases, Magazine
March 5, 2025

For Carnival as a gift for refugee children accepted by the John Paul II Foundation, a theater-therapy course to be shared with local elders Florence, Feb. 28, 2025 - A special gift is coming for Carnival: being able to wear a mask and put yourself in the shoes of the other. It is the new fundraising campaign launched by the John Paul II Foundation to support integration projects for refugee children housed in its facilities in Tuscany. Many children between the ages of 3 and 16, including some Italian children from the area, are taking a theater course: for them it represents a tool for integration, socialization, fun and also growth and knowledge of their own emotions. In one of the rooms of Villa Pettini, the facility in Valdarno that takes in refugee families, a theater teacher from the Masaccio Cultural Association together with John Paul II Foundation worker and psychologist Valentina Billi, the...

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Magazine
January 15, 2025

Hi I'm Stefania and I'm doing Universal Civil Service abroad with the John Paul II Foundation. I have been in Jordan for four months now, and right away I was included in the implementation of the Bothoor* project, which focuses on facilitating the creation of decent work opportunities in the agriculture sector for Jordan's most vulnerable population and the Syrian refugee population. I immediately immersed myself in the culture and everyday life of these people. Thanks to the Bothoor project, in addition to acquiring various technical skills, I was able to visit many inland areas of Jordan and observe the reality of small farmers, learning their traditions and customs. It is very satisfying to see how the paperwork takes shape thanks to the trainings, the kit distributions, and the achievement of the set goals. It is gratifying to see the smiles on the faces of people who participate in the trainings with a lot of commitment. It is even nicer to return to find the same associations selected at the beginning and discover...

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Magazine, News
December 23, 2024

Dearest and dearest, Thus the poet..." Silence is Christmas! Uncapitalized. In the caresses of a silent crib runs the stand of books that do not speak, of voices that do not write of alphabets that do not speak, of tools that do not serve, of instruments that do not play......" (P. Berdondini) But is it silence or is it stifled voice, annihilated by the roars of horizons frequented by ordnance that plummet on a humanity guilty only of being such? Let us try, then, to cross the border of silence so that instead the books may speak again, the voices may rise, the alphabets may line up again, the tools may be seen in their place on the shelves of artisans and the instruments finally.... beginning to play again. Merry Christmas! Yes! It is still a Merry Christmas with capital letters! Precisely because it is frontier-shelter from the spread of wars; in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Lebanon and Syria and wherever they are not called war but violence, oppression, segregation,...

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Magazine
December 13, 2024

Since October 7, 2023, the situation in Palestine has changed dramatically, making it extremely difficult to operate on the ground. In fact, increasing instability has led over the past year to the repeated reorganization of activities of our Bethlehem Green City Project*, which aims to improve municipal solid waste management in the West Bank through separate waste collection and urban circular economy initiatives. One of the main goals of the project is to raise environmental awareness in schools that, due to the conflict, have suffered alternating periods of opening and closing. A situation that forced us to reschedule activities and proceed with caution. In fact, tensions arising from attacks-from Iran, Lebanon and Israeli incursions-have affected several areas of the West Bank, imposing continuous disruptions to daily life. Exchanges of experience between Italy and Palestine also varied from the initial schedule. The last visit to Italy, initially scheduled for early 2024, is...

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Magazine
December 13, 2024

Last August we kicked off the 2024-25 school year with much hope and courage. Surprisingly, and despite often impassable roads, all the pupils returned with renewed joy and enthusiasm. They were tired of being locked within the walls of their villages because they were distressed by grueling military checks, not only in their towns but even in their homes! The return to school represented for them a reunion with friends and classmates, but above all it was a moment to rediscover their dignity-a real breath of fresh air. They finally felt welcomed again and "free" to move, talk and be together after months of loneliness and marginalization. A serenity unfortunately only apparent: on the evening of October 1, in fact, we experienced a dramatic moment never seen before. The sky, which in another context would have seemed full of shooting stars, was instead lit up by rockets that passed quickly over our heads. Thanks to the...

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Magazine, News
November 15, 2024

With the intensification of the conflict in Gaza and the increasing difficulties of operating in Palestine, the Foundation chose to stay and intervene alongside children. Our primary thought has been to safeguard the little ones, creating a safe place for them to find relief. Even in the West Bank, children live in fear and anguish aware of the difficulties their parents have in providing for their families. Several scientific studies regarding the consequences that war has on young children have caught our attention. Children respond to the stress of armed conflict with increased anxiety, isolation, sleep disturbances and nightmares, poor appetite, learning disabilities, developmental delays and aggressive behavior. Because of the developmental stage a child is in, exposure to war-related stressors affects the formation of a personal identity and personality, the notion of what is right and...

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