How Chiara Lubich’s vision inspired two organisations to work together
When we want to know the time, we look at our phones. When we drink coffee in the morning, we check our emails. In our free time, we open social media and catch up on everything we might have missed. In today’s digital world, everything we need to inform, educate, entertain, or influence us is within one click of a finger.
However, the media we consume depicts a reality far from desirable because not everything we see or read online is a feel-good story of resilience or unity. Fraternity or the sense of togetherness among a group of people is “not so common to see,” in the media, especially when conflicts remain prevalent in many parts of the world, says Carlos Mana, Ufficio Comunicazione Focolari.
Nuova Global Foundation helps to address this gap.
Nuova Global is a non-profit that supports the development of media organisations and journalistic initiatives to surface global challenges and solutions for the common good and toward humane global development.
“Our style would like to highlight mainly positive things […] We don’t want to skip the problem. We would like to face the problem, but with a different approach, [which is through] fraternity [in] the way we share and solve problems together,” Carlos explains.
Bridging the gap
To achieve this goal, Nuova Global worked with Consulus to develop journalism and social communication strategies and support news organisations at a time when disinformation and online impunity persist. “Consulus is a partner for us, […] We chose Consulus for the ethics approach that they have,” says Federico Vescovini, Chairman of Nuova Global Foundation.
Yet the roots that link Consulus and Nuova Global stem deeper than just a business partnership. The foundations of these two organisations have been inspired by the vision of one woman: Chiara Lubich.
Inspired by Jesus’ prayer to the Father, “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21), Italy-born Chiara Lubich founded the Focolare Movement, which aims to spread the message of unity around the world. This movement prompted the people behind Consulus and Nuova Global to institute their organisations by using Chiara Lubich’s vision of uniting a divided world through pragmatic solutions.
Although anchored in different fields, both Nuova Global and Consulus seek to unite people by building cross-cultural engagement, engaging in dialogue, and ensuring that unity is upheld at a time when fractured relationships are common.
By working together, “Media for a United World, Nuova Global Initiative,” was born to capacitate media organisations and support journalistic initiatives towards global fraternity and humane global development. This project is part of a five-year roadmap to advance media for unity that includes the launch of a global foundation and a global media group.
“This global initiative, for a kind of media that bridges, being established in celebration of the 25th anniversary since Chiara Lubich received the UNESCO peace prize for education, we believe is a fitting contribution to dialogue and fraternity,” Federico adds.
About Nuova Global Foundation
Nuova Global Foundation is a non-profit organisation that has a growing global affiliate network across 5 continents and 21 cities, working collectively to pave ideas and solutions for inclusive and sustainable growth of our global society. With the help of Future Resilience by Design, Nuova Global was able to expand its operations to greater lengths anchored on the vision of Chiara Lubich. This project began in 2020 and is still ongoing.
About Consulus
Consulus is a global creative change firm serving persons, companies, and cities in their transfiguration for an Economy of Communion. Consulus believes that purpose and unity are essential for innovation and inclusive growth. Since 2004, Consulus has implemented systemic innovation solutions with multidisciplinary business and design capabilities throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. With a presence in 23 nations globally, Consulus believes in shaping an inclusive socio-economic system and is a member of the Economy of Communion (EoC) network.