Organizations
[ IT ]
The Sant’Egidio Community, Georg Soros’ Open Society, the Goethe Institut. Each in its own way, is a model of NGOs that made of peace, dialogues and understanding among cultures one of their goals. They fund projects, sponsor events or are even directly committed in peace processes, as in the case of the Sant’Egidio Community. Their websites.
Comunità di Sant’Egidio
The Community of Sant'Egidio began in Rome in 1968, in the period following the Second Vatican Council. Today it is a movement of lay people and has more than 50,000 members, dedicated to evangelisation and charity, in Rome, Italy and in more than 70 countries throughout the world. Its principles are: prayer, communicating the Gospel, solidarity with the poor, ecumenism and dialogue. The Community has as its centre the Roman Church of Sant'Egidio, from which the Community takes its name. From its very beginnings, the Community has maintained, in the area of Trastevere and in Rome, a continuous presence of prayer and welcome for the poor and for pilgrims. In this way love for poor people became work for peace. Also where it is not possible to work for peace, the Community tries to bring solidarity and humanitarian aid to the civilian populations who suffer most from war. These are perhaps the best known aspects of Sant'Egidio, the ones the mass-media speak about most often. Italian, English, Français, Deutsch and other 21 languages.
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grantmaking foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. It works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses. Based in New York, OSI was created in 1993 by investor and philanthropist George Soros to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries make the transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Soros foundations network to other areas of the world where the transition to democracy is of particular concern. In English.
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is the largest German cultural policy organization working outside Germany. It promotes the study of German abroad, encourages international cultural exchange and draws information from the many sections of the German cosmopolitan society and culture, combining the experience and ideas of its partners with its cross-cultural expertise. The Goethe-Institut works on the principle of dialogue and partnership, offering support to all those actively involved with Germany and its language and culture. In German and English.
20 Nov 2006
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