In 2007 Bishop John Du of the Diocese of Dumaguete City invites the Congregation to establish a healing mission in the Philippines. Dumaguete City is the capital of Negros Oriental province. There is a lack of support and social services for the poor and homeless, and many children live on the streets.
In January 2008, Sr. Tiziana Merletti, Sr. Teresita Samson, and Sr. Maria Atorino visit the area and see how our healing charism could be expressed in the setting.
The Sisters sense a definitive alignment of needs, especially for the poor living on the street, with our charism. Leadership invites the membership, and seven Sisters and one Associate volunteer for the mission.
In January 2009 two of the volunteers, Sisters Cristina Di Nocco and Maria Atorino go to the Philippines for a two-month period to determine the more practical needs of location, housing, and which specific ministry to begin.
On August 25, 2009, Sisters Armida Sison, Cristina Di Nocco, and Maria Atorino arrive in Dumaguete with the goals of establishing an international Congregational community in Asia, ministering to the unmet needs of the poor in Dumaguete, and being opento inviting women to discern a call to our SFP life.
Sr. Marilyn Trowbridge, First Congregational Councilor, is delegated with the responsibility for the Philippines and represents the mission for the Congregational Council.
The pioneer group lives at the Marian Priests’ Center on the grounds of the Dumaguete Cathedral property and spends its early months establishing ministry contacts and searching for a permanent home.
The Sisters name their new community “Our Lady of Hope”, with Sr. Cristina as Local Minister, Sr. Armi as Finance Coordinator, and Sr. Maria as Ministry Coordinator. The Sisters soon open the soup kitchen Shelter of Hope (Landong sa paglaum) for boys, girls, women with children living in the street, physically-disabled homeless, and needy families.
Over the next few years, the Sisters work hard to expand their healing presence. Sr. Armi takes a position teaching religious education at St. Paul University, while Sr. Cristina and Sr. Maria expand the soup kitchen from one to three days a week.
The Sisters help marginalized people navigate health care, government offices, and social services. They offer basic nursing care at the Shelter of Hope and helped people get additional services like hospital care. They serve the homeless by providing laundry and bathing facilities. They help struggling families by providing school supplies and scholarships for college tuition.
The Sisters observe that there are many students who drop out of school from elementary school to college due to poverty.
This is mostly the situation of the street children. Because of this, the Sisters see the urgent need to help poor families to enable their children to continue their education.
In June 2011, they start an Alternative Learning School in the Shelter of Hope. The Scholarship program sustained by the Congregation progressively develops as an educational assistance program to college-aged students coming from poor families who either are not able to go to college or could not continue their college education due to poverty.
In late 2011 the Congregation put forth a call for Sisters willing to serve the Congregation in the Philippines.
Sr. Maria Gabriella D’Agostino arrives in Dumaguete in late 2012, beginning a three-month experience in the mission.
On December 17, 2011 Typhoon “Sendong” causes much destruction and loss of life in Dumaguete City. Less than two months later, on February 3, 2012, an earthquake brings even more damage.
Many of the poorest residents live in shacks that were completely destroyed. The Sisters, while unharmed, witness this suffering firsthand. The need arises to expand the scholarship program to children at the elementary level whose families were victims of this devastating Typhoon “Sendong”.
Then the program is extended to senior high school students, some of whose families were affected by the same flood.
After two years of hard work in the mission, the Congregation breaks ground on a residence for our Sisters and future discerning women.
The new convent is dedicated by Archbishop John Du, now the local Ordinary of the Archdiocese of Palo, on August 18, 2012.
A large crowd, including the Uymatiao Family, who donated the land to the Diocese for the residence, gather for a liturgy and celebration.
The convent is located in a Barangay (neighborhood) called Bajumpandan, about five miles (7km) from the Shelter of Hope. The Sisters move into the convent in October. A generous benefactor also gives the Sisters a used car, a very welcome gift, as there is almost no public transportation available in the city.
In 2014 Sr. Armi develops a weekend program called “Come and See” for discerning women. Over the next few years many young women share a few days of meals, prayer, fellowship, and work with our ministries.
December 15, 2014, marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Shelter of Hope. In the local culture, every anniversary is solemnly celebrated with benefactors and friends. The event is celebrated with a Liturgy and everyone receives a gift of a t-shirt and mug with the mission’s logo and an image of Mother Frances.
The In-School Feeding Program is initiated during the 2015-2016 school year at a public elementary school. It becomes an ongoing program of the Congregation to help undernourished children. The children are provided with complete lunch of rice, vegetables, fish or meat, three times a week from the beginning to the end of the school year. The public school is chosen from a depressed suburban area of the city.
By 2015 the Shelter of Hope, renamed Wheel of Hope in 2018, upgrades its service from 3 to 5 days a week and began offering a hot breakfast. Several lay adult international volunteers help the Sisters in their work.
Since January 2016, ministry in the women’s Detention and Rehabilitation Center – BJMP in Dumaguete City develops organically. Sisters and Associates offer detained women time for listening, sharing, hope and healing, with paths for finding their own sense of dignity again.
Following the 2013 Chapter Call to leave our comfort zones by choosing to work with those who live in situations of social vulnerability, several Sisters spend time in the mission: Monica Stasi, Maria Lucia Barbosa de Oliveira, Domitilde Manga, Barbara Torregrossa, Francesca Atorino, Karen Hartman, Thalyta Pereira Lima, Francesca Vitulano.
Sisters Maria Atorino and Christina Di Nocco both move to Italy in March 2014 and September 2015, respectively.
As of 2018, the Community includes Sisters Armi Sison, Francesca Atorino, Francesca Vitulano, and Maria Lucia Barbosa de Oliveira.
The first group of Associates in the Philippines make their First Covenants in November 2015. They are Glenda Yee, Gelacia Jacka Lagrito, Marieta Mayet Cabusao, Fortunata Nancy Costanilla, and Maria Sol Quiombao. In February 2017 Judy Flores Partlow and Paulita Enrile join the group. They are especially helpful in assisting the Sisters in prison ministry and translating the local dialect. Our mission in Asia is a great challenge that calls us as the family of Mother Frances. In the Philippines our healing charism holds enormous possibilities for development, from ministries promoting the dignity of poor to pastoral ministry in different fields. The name “Our lady of Hope”, chosen by the first little community in Dumaguete, expresses the hope and trust that this little sprout could take root and bear abundant fruits.
