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Anawim Lay Missions Foundation (ALMS) Inc.
#56 Chicago St., Cubao, Quezon City, M.M., Philippines 1109. |
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(02)
- 7258564 |
Telephone Number |
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They need your
love. |
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| HOW WE BEGAN… |
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ANAWIM:
Refuge For The Poor and Abandoned |
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| In June of 1996, an old
man in dirty rags entered the bamboo gate of the rugged ANAWIM compound.
And though he only saw nipa huts scattered across a hilly slope of
cogon grass, he asked if he could make that his home. His own family
had rejected him and he was hungry. ANAWIM received him with open
arms. |
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| The following week, a
whole family of eight orphans arrived from the mountains of Negros.
Both parents had died, leaving the brood to certain starvation. Realizing
that adoption was not an option for them (for that would mean separating
the siblings from one another), ANAWIM chose to make them their own
children. |
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| A few days after that,
a mother and her five children were running away from a physically
abusive husband and father. The wife had suffered seventeen (17) years
of indescribable abuse. They too found a temporary home in ANAWIM. |
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| All this happened in
a span of ten days! Indeed, ANAWIM as a ministry had begun operations!
“Anawim” is a Hebrew word, meaning, “The poor of
the Lord”, and God was indeed sending His anawim to the Center. |
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| All these began with
a simple dream in the heart of Bo Sanchez, founder of ANAWIM, more
known for his work with Catholic publications such as KERYGMA, DIDACHE,
GABAY, and COMPANION. With happy obedience to God’s call, the
first volunteers stepped out in faith and started building bamboo
huts in a five-hectare property in Montalban, Rizal—bought very
cheaply as it was all row land at that time. |
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| Today, the ANAWIM Center
has become a refuge for the poorest of the poor—a dream come
true. The ANAWIM Center contains a large chapel, three concrete homes,
and eleven bamboo huts. Surrounded by quiet farm lands and beautiful
hills, it has also become a place of prayer where many have found
God. |
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ANAWIM chapel
A place to meet God
Click image to view large size
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| Feeding eighty persons
each day—composed of the poor, the volunteers, the transients—is
no small task. And though Tita Neneng, our jolly seventy-six-year-old
main cook and “Center Mother”, knows how to stretch the
budget—ANAWIM still spends P300,000 each month for daily food,
medicines, education, clothing, and funeral expenses. (ANAWIM has
witnessed many of its old people die within a few months, because
they arrived with severe TB and other diseases caused by their abandonment.
But they die with dignity and love in their hearts.) |
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Tita
Neneng Mangahas
Center Mother
In her old age, she continues to serve the
Lord.
Click image to view large size
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| This does not include
construction costs, such as replacing the temporary bamboo huts with
concrete homes, so that ANAWIM can shelter more of the Lord’s
poor |
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ANAWIM
Nipa Huts
Our huts are pretty but need to be replaced,
fast!
Click image to view large size
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