EUROPE/ITALY - The work of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Naples (Agenzia Fides) – The Italian Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) has been active for years in Africa, Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe, working on important projects for health assistance and development. Thanks to donations collected in the “Casa Betania Amici delle Missioni” (a non-profit organization linked to the institute) in 2008, the Oblates built 9 clinics in Africa and placed additions on the already existing center in Dakar (Senegal). They also opened the “Talita Kum” Polytechnical Clinic in Uruguay for the professional training of youth from off the streets and have sent first aid materials and food to poor families in Uruguay, Romania, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau.
For 2009, the missionaries have planned new projects for providing care and for micro-development: the Formation House and Pre-Novitiate in Bangkok for boys from the mountainous region of northern Thailand; the “Casa di Anna” in Seoul (Korea), for the poor; Agricultural Courses in Java (Indonesia); Agricultural School in Temento (Senegal); the “Children growing up with Jesus” Project in Curtina (Uruguay) for nutritional development and education. In addition, in Mansaba (Senegal), there are plans for building a boarding school, grammar school, and church in a town with 6,000 inhabitants. The Oblate Missionaries will continue to promote, as well, their project for long-distance adoption: “One More Child.” (AM) (Agenzia Fides 8/4/2009)