SW News: One Body One Spirit Movement (OBOS), a Catholic organization in South Korea, has started its second fundraising drive for victims of the war in Ukraine and it will continue until July 31. The donations in the first round, carried out from March 7 to April 30, were made by 4,455 benefactors and the funds amounted to $350,000. An additional $100,000 was raised for providing succor to Ukrainian refugees who fled to neighboring countries.

Bishop Timothy Yu Gyoung-chon, auxiliary bishop of Seoul Archdiocese and chairman of OBOS, said that the movement has been collecting donations from both individuals and institutions as the number of refugees from the Ukraine war surpassed 14 million. Eight million were displaced internally and the other 6 million fled to other countries.

OBOS says it used the first round of funds for emergency relief like providing food, sanitation, and daily essentials for up to 250,000 people in Ukraine. It also constructed temporary shelters for displaced people and for children.

The organization was instituted at the 44th International Eucharistic Congress held in Seoul in 1989, to implement the actual meaning of the Eucharist in daily life. Through Catholic Social Teaching, in the Spirit of the Eucharist, they work to make a more peaceful world.

The establishment by the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-Hwan in 1988, as part of Caritas Seoul, has been working in many fields such as international development cooperation, domestic social welfare work, and life-sharing movement.

OBOS is hosting an exhibition and prayer campaign at its headquarters in Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul to spread the message of peace in the world. And it has urged its international partners to raise funds for Ukrainian war victims.

OBOS was formally inaugurated as part of the collaborative project between the Archdiocese and Movement, the soup kitchen of the Seoul Archdiocese.