On the occasion of July Genfest in Brazil in the locality of Aparecidathe global youth gathering organized by the Focolare Movement every 6 years – the last one in 2018 in the Philippines – , a group of people in Verona decided to contribute with theHands-on Action! The 2024 Genfest has as its title “Juntos para cudar”, or together to take care. Precisely to follow this motto, Margaret Karramcurrent president of the Focolare Movement, invited everyone – even adults – to live with young people for this Genfest, describing it as “an opportunity because it is not just a festival, but a concrete experience of that change that we want to bring to the world” and to “stay close to people who suffer”.
TO Verona a group of adults then organized themselves to put this invitation into practice. This is what Ornella, the lady who started this adventure, tells us:
«When I learned that the Genfest would be in Brazil and that young people from Verona would also participate, I asked myself: what can I do to experience the Genfest together with them? How can we bear witness to the mutual love we experienced? I thought about the experience I had last year when – packaging dumplings – we had raised funds for some humanitarian emergencies. I thought maybe making tagliatelle would be easier, with less raw material costs. I get active by contacting other people. Nobody called me crazy, on the contrary, liked the idea!
And so it was that a few days later a nice group of adults and some of the young people who would leave Verona for Brazil met to share the idea and become operationalthe! Once the production stations were defined – 7 spread across the province – the recipe was agreed upon, so that we could all have a finished product of good quality and respecting the environment, and the booking methods, we got to work!
The fresh tagliatelle from the community initiative “Azione Mani in Pasta!”
At a mass on March 14 for the anniversary of the death of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, we decide together to take the opportunity to deliver the tagliatelle. Meanwhile, word gets around and there are “kneaders” available to offer their time and often even the ingredients. I am people from the community, of different ages, professions, commitments. But there are also friends and acquaintances. Between everyone you truly experience a family reality, everyone living for a single project. And there are those who – unable to collaborate in person – offer much more. Thus arrive organic eggs and 10 kg of flour. You wanted a environmentally friendly packaging and here comes 120 cardboard food boxes for free. There are those who prepare labels complete with the logo “Hands in the Paste Action!”who takes care of the poster with photos and description of the purpose and manages the reservations.
