Solidarity – key to the Emmaus movement
One of Emmaus International's main objectives is to organise solidarity in the movement by pooling resources between member organisations.
Every year, each of them organises a solidarity sale to raise resources for the solidarity initiatives coordinated by Emmaus International.
The resources are firstly used to finance member organisations’ solidarity projects, which strengthen their activities and ability to assist others in need.
They also go towards enabling Emmaus organisations in Europe to ship containers of goods to organisations in Africa and Latin America. Lastly, some of the resources go into a special fund used in emergencies, for example if a member organisation is hit by a natural disaster or accident.
Moon Sharma,
from Tara Projects in India is an Emmaus International board member and rep for solidarity.
“Before I became part of the Emmaus movement, I’d never have heard the word ‘solidarity’. I’ve actually come to know even more about the importance of it in the last few years because of my involvement at international level. Solidarity in the Emmaus movement is unique and exceptional. Only the Emmaus movement lives and practises solidarity in a true sense. For me solidarity is about sharing what we have with those who are less fortunate than us. Human dignity and respect is what’s most important to each of us.
Emmaus is a united force, fighting against a system which is not people-centric enough, where the economy is not serving people. For us in the movement, peoples’ lives and dignity are what are most important. We strongly believe poverty is not inevitable. A better society with more solidarity is possible. In these times in which we’re suffering politically, socially, economically and environmentally, solidarity is our only hope of making this planet a better place to live.”
“Small gestures (...) are never a waste of time. A little gesture or small act is worth much more than a grand, beautiful dream that never becomes a reality. It’s by taking action that we’ll change things for the better. (...) That’s what solidarity is all about.”
