Global Oblate Fundraisers (GOFs) Meeting (Buffalo, MN)

It was a meeting that takes place every two years, always in a different Oblate Province; this year we had that meeting in Buffalo, MN. United States. The GOFs group consists mainly of representatives of provinces operating in developed countries; those that can help financially the Oblate provinces in developing countries. This year we had the representatives from Australia, Germany, the USA, Canada, and Poland. Fr. Vitalij Podolan, OMI, Superior of the Delegation in Ukraine, was with us as a guest. The purpose of his coming to our meeting was to present the facts about the situation during the ongoing war in Ukraine; all represented provinces declared continued assistance to Ukraine. One of the important topics we have discussed was the revisit our role of Global Oblate Fundraisers in the sustainability of Oblate Units. The question was: did the perspective of the group on that topic changed or is the group ready to take further steps to work in that direction?  If so, how? Are there particular areas (i.e. energy, water, education, community farms, empowering people, economic development, others) that could promote the financial sustainability of a given Oblate Unit and in which our office is or could be particularly interested? Sustainability is now a famous word in our group, because it defines the conditions under which we help the poor oblate provinces. For a few years now we have not been financing entire projects that we get requests for, we only help them finance them, they must do their homework locally. The next meeting in two years will happen in Italy.

 (Fr. Adam J. FILAS, OMI)