Mr. Anwar Khan, the President and Founder of OBAT, participated in the Muslim Philanthropists Mini-Summit at the Vatican in October. This summit was a part of the inaugural ‘Faith and Philanthropy Summit’ organized by the Galileo Foundation in partnership with the Global Compact on Education, the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, the Jewish Funders Network, the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and UBS AG. It brought together 145 of the world’s leading philanthropists from five different faiths. The Muslim philanthropists’ mini summit occurred in conjunction with the Faith & Philanthropy Summit and was co-hosted by the Galileo Foundation, the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI).
According to the Galileo Foundation, “Pope Francis hopes that this convening will inspire new philanthropic partnerships across traditional faith lines, to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the areas of education, global health, and sustainability in the service of the entire Human Family.” His Holiness Pope Francis is partnering with the Vatican’s Global Compact on Education, the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Jewish Funders Network, as well as UBS, with the intention of launching a new fund at the Summit, The Human Family Fund, which will provide capital for new interfaith partnership projects to deliver opportunity and equality for the most marginalized individuals in the world. During the summit, leading philanthropists, Jeff Bezos and Laura Turner Seydel, were brought together with key religious leaders including the Pope’s Secretary of State.
Participants in the Muslim philanthropists’ mini-summit discussed the role of philanthropy, current obstacles to human well-being and how philanthropy can act as an impediment to those obstacles and result in a better future for everyone. Other topics discussed included the role of Islam, theology and religious practice in philanthropy. The discussion will culminate in a white paper that will be published by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Muslim Philanthropy Initiative (MPI). 
