Discuss the Reflection Point:

• Humanity has not been able to sustain unity against the common enemies of civil war, ethnic conflict, poverty, hunger, and violation of human rights.

Ask:

Activity

Ask the young adults to generate a list of the most important problems of the world, and a list of what the world needs. The people of the world can solve the problems if they unite. Ask the young adults to form small teams. Each team is to select one problem from the list. Each team of students is to propose solutions, including which groups of people could work together in unity in order to solve the problem. The groups of people could be different businesses, corporations, professions, international institutions, etc. For example, to combat a specific illness such as asthma, advertising companies and medical communities could work together to provide information about asthma while businesses and ecologists could work together to reduce the pollutants which contribute to asthma. Or, to improve human rights and the standard of living of the poorest of the poor, successful business gurus could team with UNDP advisors to teach and persuade CEOs of multinational corporations about the importance of human development and human rights.

Each team is to make a presentation. They may illustrate their oral presentation with artistic representations or with graphs.

Core Unity Lesson

Discuss the following Reflection Points:

1. Unity is sustained by concentrating energy, by accepting and appreciating the value of the rich array of participants and the unique contribution each can make, and by remaining loyal not only to one another but also to the task.

2. Unity creates the experience of cooperation, increases enthusiasm for the task, and makes the atmosphere empowering.

3. One note of disrespect can cause unity to be broken. Interrupting others, giving unconstructive and prolonged criticism, keeping watch over some or control over others are all strident chords which strike harshly at relationships.

Ask:

Activity

Provide music, colorful paints, brushes, and a long piece of background paper. Ask them to simply create something in silence, just listening to the music and focusing on the feeling of unity. Stop the music occasionally as a signal for them to move to the right or left. Ask them to deliberately create a feeling of unity.

- Contributed by Linda Heppenstall

Share: Ask the young adults to share their experience. They may wish to refer to the Reflection Points discussed earlier in the lesson.

Discuss the following Reflection Points:

1. Unity makes big tasks seem easy.

2. When the individual is in harmony it is possible to stay stable and work more effectively with the group.

3. Unity inspires stronger personal commitment and greater collective achievement.

Ask:

Task: In this lesson the feeling of unity is sometimes more difficult to achieve as students will need to play different roles. True unity requires respecting each person and each role.

Activity

Ask the young adults what aims they would like every government to have. List students? ideas on the board. Discuss each idea and see if the class can come to a consensus on five ideas. Adapt the ideas until there is unity on five. Then, ask students to look at the principles they created.

Project: What one thing can be done practically which carries the spirit of their aims? Brainstorm different ideas. Make plans to follow through on one idea with a spirit of cooperation and unity. Perhaps the plan is to make money to buy a water pump for a village, or to provide help to fix a pump. Perhaps the plan is to clean and beautify a play area in a poor neighborhood. The plans will vary according to the needs in the school and community and the ingenuity of the students.

Students may want to become unified in creating something physical. Whatever you plan, enjoy doing it as you create.

Occasionally look at the process, and ask the students to assess what creates and what detracts from the feeling of unity.