Cynthia Pacífico Marques Vale
Age 21 – Brazil
Hello! My name is Cynthia and I am a Brazilian student of International Relations. Since I was a child, it always has called my attention to hear that we are all equal, but also that each person is unique. These two statements led me to the two passions that today guide many of my choices and projects: (1) to work for universal brotherhood, since we are brothers on the same human race; and (2) to see the world and the values which are inside every person, with all its peculiarities of thought or culture.
In the past years, I was able to participate in very interesting works and events, with which I learned a lot. In 2008 I took part on the Run4Unity, in Rome (Italy), where teenagers from all over the world ran and played together to show that a united world is possible. In 2012 I participated on the Gen Fest, in Budapest (Hungary), which put together 12.000 youth people from the five continents under the motto ‘Let’s Bridge’, that invited everybody to be protagonists of a better and united world.
Being a season, in 2015, at the International Center of the Focolare Movement – which has the charisma of unity and universal brotherhood –, I worked with young people and adults from different nationalities for Peace, coordinating initiatives and identifying sceneries where we can do something and be peacemakers. In this period, I realized how many steps humanity has already taken for this goal, but also how big is the work that we still have to do. Therefore, I hope that, together, we can give some more steps to build peace worldwide.
Peace for me is more than non-violence. It is a responsibility and something that must be constructed inside and outside each of us, which creates harmony and welfare.