June 1998

For the year 1998, the OPM office received 84 projects for Italy and 35 for abroad.The OPM committee met in Rome on 23rd and 24th June to examine the merits of each single project and to fromulate its advice to the Board.
The social centre of Ntolo in Cameroun has room for 114 children from 0 to 14 years, orphans or coming from very poor families;it provides food,accomodation and schooling for them.In 1997 the centre received a OPM financing of 65 million:a means of transport has since been bought ,new schoolrooms built,sanitary facilities repaired,a henhouse with 300 laying hens reactivated; the centre will soon have a telephone and new premises for the tinier children.

In 1998 the statement of OPM expenditure was attested (free of charge), by the society for the certifying of budgets, Arthur Anderson: another proof of our desire to operate with complete transparency.

OPM has financed the divulgation of books published by the Editrice Claudiana (55 million), to public libraries. Letters have been written expressing appraisal, including one from the Senate Library. The letters usually state that the books received (historical texts on the Reformation and books by protestant authors), cover a field usually completely ignored by public libraries.

The social centre of the United Association of Women was inaugurated on 27th November 1997 at Tirana with the financial help of OPM.It was built despite many difficulties and had to be guarded by night and day. The UAW provides meals for children, a dental service, and has premises which are used for the distribution of food and clothing to needy families.

The signatures in favour of OPM for the Waldensian church were 145.000 in 1993, increasing to 185.000 in 1994: an increase of 40.000 subscribers;the total amount of OPM is unknown at the moment.