Rescuing One’s Citizenship
Originating from the Legion of Good Will’s permanent campaign against hunger and in favor of citizenship, which was launched by Alziro Zarur*1 (1914-1979) at the end of the 1940s with the popular “Soup for the Poor” initiative, the LGW’s socio-educational program Charity Round has been in operation for 61 years.
I had the privilege of participating in the inaugural Round on 9/1/1962 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I keep till this day that initial enthusiasm, persevering, and I am honored to see the multiplication of this team that takes citizens like you and me off the cities’ sidewalks day and night. I remember that on that particular occasion it was the 23rd anniversary of the start of World War II, when Hitler invaded Poland. With the LGW’s Round, we did and still do the opposite: we declare “war” on abandonment, on the lack of education and on poverty.
With the passing of the years we have improved the initiative, adjusting it to fit in with the parameters of the Brazilian Social Assistance Policy (PNAS, in Portuguese). Today the activities undertaken with the families are aimed at them acquiring knowledge about their duties and rights and perceiving the opportunities that exist. They are also aimed at improving community practices, viewing to increase the quality of life of people through educational talks, the distribution of hearty meals and/or food handouts and workshops for encouraging people to search for new knowledge in such a way that those helped can effectively exercise their full citizenship. There are also playful activities for encouraging good attitudes and relationships within the group, without forgetting the act of praying at home, which brings the spiritual comfort that is so necessary at difficult times.
My tribute to all the volunteers of the altruistic and ecumenical Legionnaire Team, who dedicate themselves to alleviating the suffering of others so that we can live in a better world.
Millennium Goals and the Charity Round
It is important to emphasize that the Eight Millennium Goals—established by the UN and subscribed to by 192 countries, the target of which is to work with various points, from the eradication of poverty and hunger to the conservation of the environment—are aligned in a peremptory way with the principles of the pioneering actions of the LGW.
Super Good Will Network
Alziro Zarur
Coincidentally, on September 1, 1992, I started the 24-hour programming of the Super Good Will Radio Network in Brazil and abroad and also via the Internet*². In fact, the LGW emerged from the famous program Hora da Boa Vontade [Hour of Good Will] that Zarur debuted on Globo Radio in Rio de Janeiro on March 4, 1949.
Over the years the Super Good Will Network has been characterized by the pioneering way in which it broadcasts an Ecumenical Prayer every hour. With its diversified program schedule (sports, culture, journalism, and public utility), the biggest audience is for the message of the Gospel-Apocalypse of Jesus, explained in Spirit and Truth under the light of the New Commandment of the Ecumenical Christ: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
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*1 Alziro Zarur — Born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Christmas Day in 1914. He was a journalist, radio broadcaster, writer, poet, social activist, and a great preacher of God’s Word. He founded the Legion of Good Will (LGW) on January 1, 1950 (World Peace Day) and brilliantly presided over it until he passed over to the Spiritual World on October 21, 1979. Controversial and charismatic, in a popular and innovative way he preached the Gospel and Apocalypse of Jesus with much enthusiasm, but not in a literal way “for the letter kills” (The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 3:6), but in Spirit and Truth under the light of the New Commandment of the Ecumenical Christ. Zarur was also a great Proclaimer of the Unrestricted Ecumenism and of the Total Ecumenism in the world, a thesis that he had sustained since his teenage years when he launched the fundamentals of his Crusade of Brotherly Religions, thus anticipating inter-religious relationships.
*2 Super Good Will Radio Network — Radio network created by Paiva Netto, that today counts with radio stations linked via satellite and permanently connected to the Internet: www.boavontade.com
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