Workshop
53rd United Nations World Earth Day
Italy celebrates Earth Day with the Village for the Earth and the Multimedia Marathon #OnePeopleOnePlanet live on RaiPlay and deferred on vaticannews.va
Over 600 events amongst which educational workshops, sport activities, concerts, street art, talk shows and dozens of activities dedicated to the environment, to innovation, to the culture and sport
The 53rd World Earth Day, the United Nation’s greatest environmental manifestation, is celebrated on the 22nd of April all over the world with over one billion citizens involved through the work of 75,000 organizations in 193 countries.
Many are the manifestations in program, in the different parts of the world. The Italian event, organized by Earth Day Italy and the Focolare Movement, has been defined by the Earth Day Network of Washington as the most important manifestation on a global scale for the safeguarding of the planet and the development of a strong ecological conscience.
The Village for the Earth
At last back physically, after a long break imposed by the pandemic, is the Village for the Earth that from the 21st to the 25th of April will host over 600 events at the Galoppatoio of Villa Borghese and on the splendid Terrace del Pincio in Rome. At the heart of the village are the 17 Goals of Sustainable Development of the 2030 United Nations Agenda, explored through 17 multimedia platforms guided by the students of different universities, all coordinated by the Catholic Sacred Heart University. Every day, on the stage set up on the Terrace del Pincio, a dense Talk Show program guided by TV and print journalists will be held, and, at the same time, the performances of international renowned street artists will be live-streamed whilst creating works on the environmental theme.
To animate the Village are numerous activities out of which: The Forest Police’s Biodiversity Park; the Sport Village with over 30 sportive disciplines taken care by Federations, Associations and Sport Groups, Science Village with ESA, CNR, INAF, CREA, ISPRA, INGV, ENEA, ARPA. All the activities carried out at the Village may be enjoyed free of charge. Thanks to the precious contribution of the Misericordie, the Village for the Earth will be even more accessible, inclusive and safe for all the visitors.
The Children’s Village
Schools of all levels, coming from the whole of Italy with thousands of students, will have the opportunity to actively participate in the celebrations. For the smaller ones, a fantastic Children’s Village has been prepared, in collaboration with UNICEF, and numerous other associations, enriched with different workshops out of which : the Fire Brigade’s Fire World, the INAF Inflatable Planetarium, the spectacular climbing wall offered by the National Educational Sports Centre (the largest sports promotion entity recognized by CONI) and the trails of Biodiversity set up by the Forest Police, where every day there will be a saddle christening with the Monterufoli horses.
To animate the Children’s Village will be SpongeBob’s character, the most loved yellow sponge and protagonist of the eponymous TV series set at Bikini Bottom, a town at the bottom of the sea, to air on the Nickelodeon channels, the Paramount brand for children and teens. Since always, SpongeBob is connected to the safeguarding of the oceans, to recycling and to sustainability and thanks to his universal language is able to communicate with all age groups.
Amongst the news is also the EcoGive app of the ‘Nuove Vie per un Mondo Unito’(New Ways to a United World) association that teaches to care of the planet and the communities harmed by the environmental changes. While the underwater world, ‘Mare Vivo’(Living Sea) will reveal the animal and plant curiosities that live underwater.
School’s Involvement
The school’s involvement from the whole of Italy is inserted in the Education to Sustainability Festival chart, designed and realized in 2016 by the organizers along with the Ministry of Education, and animated by the #ICare contest aimed at highlighting student’s commitment to the sustainability issues with the goal of highlighting, projects, artistic works and reports in line with the 2030 Agenda from the nations of the world.
#OnePeopleOnePlanet – The Multimedia Marathon
Now in its fourth edition, the Multimedia Marathon #OnePeopleOnePlanet (#OPOP). On the 22nd of April, from 08:00 to 24:00 o’ clock, 16 hours of live content will be aired on RaiPlay and deferred on the Vatican News, media-partner of the initiative. Talk Shows, International Connections, artistic, scientific and institutional testimonies, will animate the “relay race of voices and hearts to make the heartbeat for the Planet again”.
The main event of the manifestation is the meeting for the youth from all 5 continents along with the organizers of the Youth4Climate.
Antonia Testa, member of the Focolare Movement, has underlined that: “At the Village for the Earth we have the opportunity to consider the world from a local and global perspective. This allows us to look at the face of the big as well of the small challenges of our times. Sometimes, we too are touched by the indignation we feel when faced with inaction, our own or that of others … But there are people who live, work, build, collaborate to stitch and patch up the social fabric. These people are the protagonists of the Village for the Earth, the true protagonists of today’s humanity, who haven’t stopped hoping and dreaming”.