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World Day of Solidarity: First Sunday of May of Every Year

By lob@quanta.com.py, 7 May 2000

HISTORY: The idea came from the Rotary Club in Asuncion, Paraguay in July of 1997. It was approved as a program for all the clubs of the District 4840 (Paraguay and Misiones, Argentina) by the District Conference held in Posadas (Misiones, Argentina) on March 22, 1998. The hope is that the program expands to all the Rotarian clubs all over the world, and that it be approved as a World Program of Rotary International and then as a Program of the United Nations.

OBJECTIVES: The program asks all organizations (especially the ones that serve the community such as Rotary, Lions, Junior, etc.) to encourage all people of the planet that the first Sunday of May, every year, have a gesture of solidarity to somebody (individual or group) that needs exactly that: SOLIDARITY. The support of churches of all denominations is crucial to the success of this annual program. Without the cooperation of the media and advertising agencies, little or nothing can be done. We must also look for the support and enthusiasm of celebrities involved in music, movies, arts and sports. They must all encourage, weeks in advance, companies, schools, universities, professional associations, and individuals, that they visit the sick and needy, bringing music to the hospices, give company to the elderly, visit hospitals and prisons on the DAY OF SOLIDARITY. The purpose is not to give cash donations but that day each individual, personally, tell a person in need "I AM HERE FOR YOU", "I SHARE YOUR PAIN AND SORROW".

HOW CAN WE MATERIALIZE THIS SOLIDARITY GESTURE? By choosing, with anticipation, the institution or individual that we are going to personally visit the first Sunday of May, every year. Each one can decide either to go alone, bring a friend, family members, coworkers, etc. Take, in each visit, gifts such as food, clothes, toys, books, school materials, etc., but remember that the reason of the program is to visit a person or persons in need. Bringing along somebody that plays a musical instrument will cheer everybody.

MULTIPLYING EFFECTS OF THE SOLIDARITY GESTURE: the people involved will be more aware of the reality of these people's lives, will feel more human by been in contact with people in need and lonely. Many times there will be a "current" of sympathy between the person paying the visit and the one receiving. Friendships can be established. Since these visits will de done every year, the "visitors" will be in contact with different kinds of problems and needs. At the same time, the persons been visited, with their own limitations, will also react with understanding and solidarity towards others, like a gigantic chain reaction throughout the world.

This program has no limits, other than the imagination and sensibility of all human beings. This program is addressed to all of them, and to service organizations, schools, churches, companies, factories, sports organizations and families. The goal is that nobody remains indifferent, at least on the first Sunday of May, in the WORLD DAY OF SOLIDARITY.