Bangalore: Focolare Movement holds Run4Unity 2007 in City
from Jessie Rodrigues
for Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SM)
Bangalore, Nov 21: The “Run4Unity 2007” was an interesting teens’ programme organized by Focolare movement which took place in the city, Mumbai, Trichy and Coimbatore on Saturday November 17. In New Delhi and Dehradun the said programme was held on Sunday November 18.
The Focolare Movement, the charism of which is unity and universal brotherhood, proposes the Gospel law of reciprocal love as the foundation on which to build relationships among all. Their aim is to bring all over the world a revolution of love, so that the prayer of Jesus, “May they all be one,” may come true, in spite of all barriers, great or small.
Chiara Lubich, born in Trent on January 22, 1920, is the founder and president of the Focolare Movement, which is present in 182 countries in the world, numbering about 2 million members and adherents.
The highlight of run4unity 2007 is inscribed in its motto, “Let's discover the other”. The young for unity are inviting their peers and friends to make an effort to get to know the ones who are different from us. They want everyone to discover the richness in the other.
The Run4unity is an initiative of the teens for unity (a branch of the Focolare Movement) as they themselves have presented before beginning the sports. The most important point was to highlight the golden rule (do unto others what you would like the others do unto you) in order to make the experience that through sports we can also build up peace, unity and achieve universal brotherhood.
This year the theme was "Discover the other". The event was a success due to everyone’s efforts to put these main ideas into practice. The rules of the game presented by the teens for unity were a real challenge to make it a success.
The program the city was held at St John’s school grounds, Promenade Road, starting with registration for the schools and individual students, the participation of which included around 450 children from the following schools, St John's, St Francis Xavier, Stella Maris, St Joseph's RTC middle School, St Germain, St Anthony, primary and high school, St Aloysus, primary and high school, St Charles, Clarence School, St Alphonsus, Maria Niketan and also some students from Radiant and Lourdes school. This was followed by lining up of all the participants for the Mini Marathon.
The programme started off with a prayer by Dr Prahalad, professor of the Goan University followed by lighting of the Olympic torch. Later Rani Rajkumar lighted the lamp. Professional oath taking was the next item on the agenda. This was followed by a song, Golden Rule / As a happy river flows. Various sports were held. Athletics like 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters & relay, throw ball and basketball games in addition to tele-games like sack race, tug of war, dodge ball, tunnel game, sari ball game etc. were conducted under the able guidance of Gunashekhar, the PT master of St John’s school.
Many volunteers rendered their help all the time. CSI Hospital extended their help throughout the programme in first aid in case of any need.
Winners were awarded with trophies and all were presented with participation certificates as appreciation and as a memory of this great event.
The unique item of the day was the Children leaving their impressions and follow up, heartening to see them write their feelings, appreciations etc. on the handprints.
Boniface Prabhu, tennis player in wheelchair champion of the world, kindly obliged to give away the prizes.
The programme concluded with a prayer, vote of thanks and with the National Anthem.