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John Paul II Foundation / Magazine

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Press Releases, Magazine
April 26, 2025

Even in his last speech, just hours before he left, Pope Francis appealed for peace. In the Urbi et orbi blessing of Holy Easter he recalled the suffering in Palestine and Israel, of the Gaza conflict, of Christian communities in Lebanon and Syria, of the "beloved Middle East." These are the places dear to the John Paul II Foundation, those where for years and with daily commitment it has been giving proof that - as taught by Pope Woytila and recalled on every occasion by Pope Francis - "no peace is possible where there is no religious freedom or where there is no freedom of thought and speech and respect for the opinions of others. No peace is possible without true disarmament." Pope Bergoglio urged us, in the light of Easter, "to break down the barriers that create divisions and are fraught with political and economic consequences." He invited us to "care for one another, to...

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Press Releases, Magazine, News, Uncategorized
April 22, 2025

Easter 2025 Realizing we are alive is so simple, it is a sound that comes from our flesh, a sound that our flesh Has taken from the sound of the world. To hear it you have to remove noise, the noise that pretensions make grudges, you have to disassociate From those who live to lynch the infinite, from those who enclose the affair within the walls of the obvious and convenience... (Franco Arminio) With these first lines by Arminio, I would like to open the page dedicated to all of you, friends of the John Paul II Foundation, to welcome Easter delivered to us again this year by the bounty of nature, by the tradition of a millenary civilization and, for many of us, by Faith - argomentum non apparentium, an expression used in the letter to the Hebrews (11:1) - in the risen Christ and, for science, simply by the position in spatial coordinates of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. The Foundation organizes its calendar precisely from Easter which is followed by the celebratory feast of St. John Paul II, thus...

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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

In Lebanon, where agricultural power is concentrated in the hands of a few, the John Paul II Foundation puts people back at the center: farmers are once again given the right to be protagonists of their own future. Our growth model seeks to help farmers in the poorest areas not only to improve productivity and make production chains more efficient, but aims for real structural change in order to promote their autonomy and inclusion in markets. The Middle East crisis is threatening the survival of Lebanese small farmers. Without direct access to markets, they are forced to sell their products through middlemen who impose unfair and illegal conditions. In this way they risk becoming the fragile link in the chain and becoming trapped in a perpetual state of vulnerability. Food insecurity has reached alarming levels: according to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture, 1.65 million people...

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Magazine, News
April 8, 2025

In Jordan, there is still no shared approach to educating the hearing impaired. In fact, public and private schools use different methodologies, creating unevenness in learning levels. The John Paul II Foundation, with the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and in collaboration with Studio In - experienced professionals in pedagogy, is promoting an innovative approach to the education of hearing-impaired people through the "Let's Feel Good" project. The initiative also aims to improve the perception of deafness in society by fostering quality inclusive education. The project offers teacher training based on new teaching approaches adopted in public and also private schools. The goal is to deepen knowledge of both the neurophysiological basis of deafness, devices (hearing aids, cochlear implants) and recovery tools (speech-language rehabilitation). In this way, professionals in the field will be able to better understand the behaviors and needs of people...

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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
February 3, 2025

In the heart of Palestine, where agriculture represents both a resource and a challenge, "Jericho Vale!" comes to life, a project that looks to the future with roots firmly in the soil. The initiative, promoted by the City of Bergamo together with the John Paul II Foundation and funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), aims to transform the local agribusiness sector into an engine of growth and opportunity. Jericho is a city with a history dating back thousands of years, but its present is marked by structural, economic and political obstacles. Agricultural production, which once provided a significant slice of Palestinian GDP, now struggles to compete with international markets. Small producers often find themselves isolated, lacking the tools to improve the quality and marketing of their products. This is compounded by difficulties in accessing water resources and adopting innovative agricultural practices, making a targeted intervention that can meet the needs...

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