The spirit of cooperation and the incentive to the spontaneous feeling of Love for one another are the foundations that guide the work of the Legion of Good Will. For decades, it creates and keeps socio-educational programs in some parts of the world, especially in the least developed countries by promoting better standards of life for populations in personal and social risk situations.

There are schools of basic education, from nursery to high school; Homes for children, adolescents and senior citizens; Community and Educational Centers, with a variety of job training and social protection courses; emergency programs of fight against hunger and misery; and socioeducational campaigns that dignify life. This work crosses the borders and reaches various regions of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Portugal.

In the United States, the Legion of Good Will had its official start on October 30, 1986, when it received from the Department of the State of New York, the approval and the register of the incorporation certificate. With the contribution of the North American population it has come to help even more people, through its programs of social solidarity. In 1999, the LGW was recognized at the UN with the maximum status in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), where it has acted as an international partner since then. (see LGW at the UN)

Our mission

Promote Education and Culture with Spirituality, so that there may be Food, Health and Work for all, in the formation of the Ecumenical Citizen.

Philosophy

Love in its maximum manifestation, which is Jesus, is the philosophy of the LGW. Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” This is the Law of Social Solidarity.  “Jesus, the most complete expression of Love of all times in Humanity, is the greatest religious figure, the greatest legislator, the greatest jurist, the greatest politician, the greatest economist, the greatest sociologist, the greatest philosopher, as well as the greatest scientist, the greatest ecologist, the greatest sportsman, the greatest sexologist, and so on” (Extracted from “The Philosophy of the Legion of Good Will”, by Paiva Netto, article published in the first volume of the Spiritual Guidelines of the LGW, 7th edition, page 31).

So that the real solutions of all the human problems – from the simplest to the most complex - be found, it is necessary to have Love in the heart. This sacred feeling is what moves the Legion of Good Will. It derives ethical, moral, social and spiritual values that guide the programs and actions of support to the least favored populations.

Born on March 2, 1941, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, poet, and President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), José de Paiva Netto, is member of the ABI (Brazilian Press Association), FENAJ (Brazilian Federation of Journalists), Academia de Letras do Brasil Central, Professional Journalists Syndicate, Writers Syndicate, Radio Broadcasters Syndicate, Brazilian Order of Journalists and UBC (Brazilian Union of Composers).
His childhood and youth were marked by an uncommon worry with philosophical, spiritual, social, political, scientific and economic themes and by a deep sense of assistance to the needy.

He studied in the traditional Colégio Pedro II, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he received the title of “Eminent Pupil”, receiving a bronze plaque at the headquarters of this respected Standard-School. In 1956, still young, left behind his vocation for medicine in order to dedicate himself to the LGW, starting his triumphant journey next to the late founder of the Institution, the Brazilian journalist, radio broadcaster, writer, poet, thinker and activist Alziro Zarur (1914-1979), being one of his main assessors during almost a quarter of a century.  Later on, became Secretary General of the LGW (position equivalent of the Vice-President), and with the death of Zarur, Paiva Netto became his successor.

President of the organization since 1979, Paiva Netto multiplied the LGW’s programs of Human, Social and Ed ucational Promotion with a growth over 150.000%.  He established in the Legion of Good Will the motto Education and Culture, Nourishment, Health and Work with Ecumenical Spirituality, mark of a gigantic community action that stands out by the high quality level in the assistance towards the needy population who lives in personal and social risk.  Today there are sections of assistance of the LGW spread throughout Brazil, such as schools of basic education; homes for children, adolescents and elderly; Community and Educational Centers; and socioeducational campaigns.

This work has no borders. It is also held in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Portugal and the United States, besides having correspondents around the world.  The LGW was the first Brazilian non-governmental organization to achieve at the UN general consultative status in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).  In 2000, it became part of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations with consultative relations with the United Nations (CONGO), in Vienna, Austria.

To diffuse all this ideal of Solidarity, Paiva Netto created the Super  Rede Boa Vontade de Rádio – RBV (Good Will Super Radio Network) and the Rede Mundial – A TV da Educação, da Cultura e da Cidadania Solidária com Espiritualidade Ecumênica! – RMTV (Rede Mundial – The TV of Education, Culture and Solidary Citizenship with Ecumenical Spirituality!).  He wrote several best sellers, with over 3 million copies sold.  About this aspect of his personality, the North American writer Errol Lincoln Uys observed: “Paiva Netto, being a practical man, nevertheless has a soul of a poet.”  According to the definition of the eminent professor, jurisconsult José Cretella Júnior, “Paiva Netto is a distinguished stylist, always up to date with the news.”  And in the opinion of the master of professors Moacir C. Lopes, “he is a writer of great talent.”

Alziro Abraão Elias David Zarur was born, paradoxically, on a day of peace in a year of war, when men of the entire world were already facing one of the most tragic wars of History: December 25, 1914, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was not by chance that he unchained, during all his life, a pacific “war” in favor of Humanity. Son of Arab immigrants - Ássima and Elias Zarur -, he defended the thesis that “the Human Being was created in such a way that He/She can only be happy doing Good”.

Zarur studied in the Faculdade Nacional de Direito (National Law School), but he preferred to be a doctor in Gospel and Apocalipse, which for him were the most important works of the world. If he had gathered what he wrote in newspapers and magazines since 1930, without counting the thousands of offhand speeches, it would be possible to make more than 50 books on radio and television, politics and science, literature and religion.

In 1948, he excused himself from the social circles during about one year, living a period of “spiritual exile”, to plan, in details, the work that he would later come to found.

He observed that the radio had not yet made an exclusively dedicated program to the sick. That was how he created, on March 4, 1949, the Hour of Good Will, at the Radio Globo. The program brought a word of courage to the sick of the body and of the Soul.

At the time, he was criticized by people that worked in the radio business who did not believe that he, at the age of 33, would leave his success in the radio to dedicate himself to ecumenical religiosity. But Zarur went on and, in a modest room at Acre Street, in Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil, elaborated, alone, the statutes of the organization that, later, would become one of the biggest in the world. 
This way, on January 1, 1950, he founded the Legion of Good Will, with the mission to contribute for the solidary development through actions in the social, educational, cultural and philosophical areas.

With the establishment of the LGW, Zarur initiated the Cruzade of Brotherly Religions, in favor of the union of the beliefs, in the search for Peace. His concern in respecting the different religions was recognized by the Vatican. Zarur received from the Apostolic Messenger Dom Sebastião Baggio the Medal of Pope Paul VI, “for services rendered to the cause of Ecumenism”.

His words sensitized thousands of Brazilians who paid close attention to his pioneer preaching. He spoke of Unrestricted Ecumenism and proclaimed Jesus’ New Commandment — Love one another as I have loved you —, explaining: “Not to love with the love of men, always selfish and sectarian, but to love with the Love of Jesus”.

Alziro Zarur passed away on October 21, 1979, in the city of Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil.