CFC ANCOP Australia has launched its ANCOP Ambassador (AA) Program 2022-23.
The AA Program is a biennial event that started in 2012 and is one of the fundraising activities unique to CFC ANCOP Australia.
The program, sometimes referred to as the AA Event or the AA campaign, takes place over a period of several months, beginning in March. During this time, representatives from each state/territory or CFC chapters take on the role of ANCOP ambassadors.
The 2022-23 ANCOP ambassadors as follows:
As ambassadors for ANCOP, they spread awareness of the work of ANCOP and foster among CFC members and the wider community ANCOP’s vision which is “Families in the Holy Spirit sharing God’s transforming love with the poor”.
The ambassadors will rally their local CFC community and supporters outside of CFC to raise funds for the three main programs of ANCOP, namely the Education Sponsorship, Community Development, and Calamity and Disaster Response programs. An ANCOP Ambassador Appeal Page in Gofundraise is now able to accept donations to ANCOP through the ambassadors' fundraising pages. Visit the Gofundraise ANCOP Ambassador Appeal homepage to donate or to read more about the stories of the ambassadors.
The ANCOP ambassadors present to all the households in Couples for Christ. They also coordinate with their local ANCOP team in organising fundraising activities and events during the campaign period.
“To broaden the reach of ANCOP, we will promote this program extensively throughout Australia, to include or encourage the involvement of people and community groups outside of CFC”, said Nick Vargas, the AA Program Coordinator.
“Heeding the call to provide help to the less fortunate should be our response during these difficult times. People have suffered much because of the pandemic. We can help them recover and give them hope”, added Nick.
In 2020-21, CFC ANCOP Australia provided education sponsorships to more than 500 poor kids and young adults in the Philippines, and provided funding to various education infrastructure and support programs in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, which are benefitting thousands of poor families.
“The funds for the 2020-21 projects came from the donations of our supporters who, despite the global pandemic, generously supported the previous Ambassador Program. Despite all the challenges, the previous batch of ambassadors helped raised more than $500,000 in donations and fundraising proceeds, including from the 2020 Fun Run”.
“We were so happy, blessed, and humbled by the outpouring of support from all the volunteers, donors, and partners, and we pray to see the same level—if not more—of outpouring in this new AA campaign”, said Goody Maquinad, the CFC ANCOP Australia president.
“We hope to continue providing sponsorships to our current students and to assist many more. Our programs in the Oceania Region are also growing— further support is needed to sustain them”, said Goody.
Meet Camille Glean, now employed as a teacher. She was a CFC ANCOP Australia scholar. On March 2019, she obtained a degree in Early Childhood Education from Philippine Normal University. She graduated cum laude.
Camille became an ANCOP scholar beginning her second year in college. That year was also the time she became a Youth for Christ (YFC) member.
“From there I learned that I need to trust God, His ways and His promises”, she said.
Coming from a single-parent family, Camille honours her mother, a public market vendor, who has sacrificed a lot for the family.
“My mother did everything for us, tried all the good possible ways to have income. She sells packed vegetables and salt. I still remember when I was in grade school during breaks, I would join my mother and sold salt and vegetables, and I always told myself that one day “I will make Mama’s life less miserable, that she won’t have to wake up at dawn to haggle for things to sell, and go home extremely exhausted with mud on her feet.
“I’ve always been thankful because my mom remained strong. She taught us to call on God always, and to be thankful, and to always have faith.
“That faith brought us to the ANCOP scholarship. That faith led me to persevere in my studies, to work really hard, to finish papers after papers, to read hundreds of pages of materials, to complete teaching instructional materials all day and night. There were times I cried and doubted my abilities. But my faith always brought me back. I myself didn’t think that I would graduate a Cum Laude, to rank 22nd in a batch of 760 graduates.
“My mom’s faith led her to become an active member of the CFC Handmaids of the Lord (HOLD) in February of this year. And this was such a blessing! Praise God because I got hired as a teacher in a school owned by a sister in CFC HOLD-- the Mulberry Hills Preparatory School in Manila.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to ANCOP, for their big part in helping me secure an educational qualification. Thank you for supporting me and believing in me. I hope that you’ll continue bringing hope to us youth, making poor people’s dreams come true.
"To my ANCOP coordinators-- for being concerned with us scholars always, for being understanding of our needs, thank you for your trust in us. To my best friend, Tin, thank you for bringing me closer to God and for being a true friend in this community.
"To my co-ANCOP scholars, congrats! We did it by God’s grace. There is so much more for us to explore and experience, but the most important thing is to enjoy every step of our way, and be humble and grateful all the time. I hope we’ll continue making our dear scholarship sponsors proud. May the fire of both serving God and following our passion burn the brightest. Let’s be inspiration to other people, keep shining and serving. God bless us all.
Meet Julie Ann Burio. On March 2019, Julie was conferred a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, majoring in Computer Application, at De La Salle’s College of Saint Benilde (CSB) in Manila.
Julie came from a very poor family. Her mother does laundry for a living. Her father is a helper in a mechanic shop. Sending four children to school was a struggle for the family. Luckily, ANCOP’s Global Walk funds supported Julie throughout her high school. Her college education was picked up by CFC ANCOP Australia, to augment a grant that was provided by CSB.
Julie now feels empowered to pursue her dreams, not just for herself, but for the whole family. She's currently working as a Data Analyst for a big consultancy firm.
Meet Lara Shadel Gutierrez. ANCOP Australia supported her throughout college. She was a very motivated student, graduating as a Cum Laude from the De La Salle-College of St Benilde in March 2019. She took up Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Export Management. She now works as a Management Trainee for a major Philippine bank.
Lara came from a poor family living in the province of Nueva Ecija. After her father passed away, her mother-- the sole breadwinner, struggled financially. But ANCOP came to help, enabling her to enroll in college. She studied very hard and graduated with honors, valuing the opportunity given to her by ANCOP. Lara writes that aside from the financial help, CFC ANCOP led her to be nourished and filled spiritually through her involvement with the Youth for Christ (YFC) ministry.
She writes and thanks her Australian sponsors:
“To my sponsors,
It's been four years since my journey in college started. Until now, I still can't believe that I got the chance to study in, and graduated from, De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. It was surreal, especially graduating as a cum laude!
I have to admit that it wasn't easy. Considering that I lost the two most significant men in my life, my father and my grandfather, within those years. But with all the help and love coming from the people around me, I survived those challenges and got stronger. A "thank you" won't be enough to express how grateful I am for all the help you've given me and my family. I really hope I made you all proud. I hope and pray that someday I will be someone like you—helping students from poor families… helping them realise their dreams.
I will continue praying for all of you. I wish you good health and constant happiness.
Thank you very much, ANCOP Australia! Maraming salamat po! Mahal ko kayo!
To God be the Glory.
Sincerely,
Lara Shadel Gutierrez
When completed, the renovated site will cater for young people of the community, particularly senior secondary school students and young women.
The old Natapoa Mission House was devastated by Category 5 cyclone Pam back in 2015. It is located at the Natapoa Complex in Port Vila. The building is owned by the Diocese of Vanuatu but it has been leased to CFC Vanuatu for the purposes of ANCOP Vanuatu. The Rispek Hemi Honorabol Developmen Program (RHHDP) aims to renovate the Natapoa Complex. The renovated site will cater for young people of the community, particularly senior secondary school students and young women.
The RHHDP endeavours to make this space one that is not only for academic purposes, but one for character building and improved personal, emotional, spiritual, and mental wellbeing of its users. Users of the Natapoa Complex will participate in any of the following seven programs: Nutrition and Exercise, Personality and Emotional Development, Human Values, Spirituality, Communication, Mind and Positive Thinking, and Discipline. The RHHDP will be the first of its kind in that it caters more to personal development. However, it does so not as an alternative to academic development but as an enhancement of the individual, their peers, the community, and Vanuatu as a whole.
Renovation started in early 2020 and at this stage it is near completion already. The project is fully funded by ANCOP Australia.
Residents of Kwalakessi Village in a town called Hoskins in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, struggle to afford education. There are no schools close to the village. The nearest ones are miles and miles away, are overcrowded, and have limited places available for the Kwalakessi children. Hence the villagers, children and adult alike, cannot read or write. Not surprisingly, unemployment in the area is high. To address their need for basic literacy and numeracy, CFC ANCOP Australia is helping finance the construction of a community hall.
The main intended use for the building is to conduct literacy school for children and adults alike.
The initial plan is to hold early childhood curriculum classes three days a week and to get trained volunteer teachers, much similar with the Markham School (in Morobe Province) which was also funded by ANCOP Australia. They are also planning to conduct adult basic literacy and numeracy skills classes two days a week. The place has three CFC members who are qualified teachers and can help deliver the classes.
The building is expected to be completed at the end of 2021 and the literacy classes are planned to commence in February 2022.
Hilda Mae is 30 years old. The only child of separated parents, she grew up with her mother in a far-flung village in the southeast of Guadalcanal island. Hilda recalls that she could hear and talk up until she was five. According to her family, she fell ill at that age, with the illness affecting her brain. She lost her ability to hear and speak after that. Like most other students in the Centre, Hilda has previously never received any form of basic education. She remembers the sadness she felt watching other children go to school, while she stayed at home performing household chores and gardening. She was introduced to San Isidro Care Centre in 2017 by her uncle, a catechist in the nearby village.
At San Isidro, she is glad to have gained knowledge and skills in sign language, reading, writing, cooking, baking, sewing, gardening, and looking after animals. Her favourites are sewing and baking. Now in her fourth year, she is able to learn more on baking pastries and cakes, and on sewing children’s clothing.
Hilda Mae has a 6-year-old daughter who is now in kindergarten. Her mother looks after her daughter while she studies in San Isidro. Hilda also teaches sign language to her daughter, Lea, whenever she is home for the school holidays.
She is thankful to ANCOP Australia for providing sponsorships for her and all the students of San Isidro since 2019. Through this assistance, the school is able to provide for her needs during the school year. She is employed by her relatives in the city of Honiara during school breaks. Hilda and her family are grateful for the kind support of CFC ANCOP Australia.
CFC ANCOP Australia is providing $5,000 to fund the replacement of the existing roof of the Pulong Mindanao Elementary School Activity Centre. The funds will be used to pay for building construction supplies, materials and labour.
Once the roof at the centre is replaced, the solar panels which ANCOP Australia also donated last May-- valued at over $4,000-- will then be installed. The solar panels will provide a power source for the school, its students and the community residents as well. The activity centre will become a safe venue for meetings and activities not only during the day but also at night as it will have proper lighting for the first time. It is expected that many of the students will use the centre at night as many houses do not have sufficient lighting to enable them to do their school work at home.
Site development plan for Sitio Pulong Mindanao School Activity Centre, which ANCOP Australia is helping to renovate
Pulong Mindanao is a sitio located 10 kilometers away from the town of Santa Maria, in Laguna Province, Philippines. The area relies on solar lamps and generators for lighting, as it is not serviced by the main electric grid.
To get to Pulong Mindanao, one has to travel by horse, or walk along slippery trails and cross several streams.
The original settlers are migrants from Mindanao who left the island during the height of the Muslim-Christian conflict in the 1970s. Hence it is called Pulong Mindanao.
Villagers of Pulong Mindanao are subsistence root crop farmers, haulers and seasonal workers. Their houses are of mixed or indigenous materials. Their water for bathing, cooking and laundry are from a well and a running stream. Clean drinking water comes from water distillers donated by a water utility firm.
There is an elementary school in the area. In 2020, it has around 66 pupils and four teachers. ANCOP USA provides educational sponsorship to 43 children and youth. The delivery of the Educational Sponsorship Program (ESP) components are done in coordination with the parents and teachers of the Pulong Mindanao Elementary School. Value formation trainings are regularly given to the students as part of their holistic growth and development.
CFC ANCOP Australia is helping with power generation through the provision of solar panels. Donations from Japan, U.S. and other donor partners also came in the form of computers, clothes, and other supplies.
Recently, the area received food aid under the Covid 19 Assistance Project.
Building harmonious and sustainable communities is one of ANCOP's end goals. The communities ANCOP had built for poor families or victims of calamities in the Philippines are able to maintain close familial ties through values formation and servanthood by sweat equity. Sponsors and guests visit these relocation sites as part of regular immersion programs that ANCOP organises. During these immersion trips, the sponsors themselves labour towards the building of houses and other improvements in the village. Through the immersion program, there is mutual reciprocity of service love, respect and spiritual awakenings, as you can read from the newsletter below, or watch in the two videos below of the 2018 and 2019 immersion trips, respectively. Unfortunately, due to Covid, immersion trips are now suspended until it safe to hold them again.
What's Up ANCOP February 2019 edition
by Sis Delma Dumas, CFC Handmaids of the Lord, Lae, Papua New Guinea
God gave me two special gifts and I treasure them so dearl
y. Each gift has helped me see the beauty of my service as a Handmaid of the Lord serving in Lae, Papua New Guinea since 1997.
My first special gift are the poor. I was blessed that God surrounded me with them. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve them. I have always the passion for helping the poor, for by loving and helping them, I serve the Lord.
The second special gift I received from God is ANCOP- “answering the cry of the poor. The acronym itself conveys a very powerful message. Immediately I fell in love with its mission that without any hesitation, I embraced it and accepted it as another gift from God.
In 2017, there were 20 Handmaids of the Lord (HOLD) scholars who completed a short course in garment construction. Later, I set up a space for them at my workplace so they can start using their sewing skills. Soon, the sisters were already busy sewing dresses using the 10 units of sewing machines donated by our HOLD sisters from American Samoa through the initiative of Sister Thelma Hizon.
I have seen that sewing have sustained them; not just as a source of livelihood, but also a source of sense of self-worth and belonging. Sisters coming to the workshop everyday became their way of being together, to be in touch with one other in worship, in prayer, in the sharing of food, and in supporting one another to enhance their newly found talents and skills.
There is a plan to relocate them to Markham Bridge, a remote area outside of Lae, when the new ANCOP school building (pictured) is completed. We also plan that these sisters will run a sewing training for prospective enrollees in 2020. They will become the future ANCOP volunteer trainors for this course in that school.
Let me tell you about this school. In March 2018 we started building a school in Markham Bridge. I donated part of my land for this. The school provides free education to the people of this very remote area. The community in the village volunteered to construct the building while the sisters contributed their time and effort helping to facilitate the construction of the school.
The school officially opened on 16 July 2018 and we named it “The CFC Handmaids of the Lord Literacy School”. It opened with 200 students in adult literacy levels 1 & 2 and early learners levels 1 & 2 classes. They were under the care of two HOLD sisters who are full-time teacher volunteers. After a few months, I donated the school, the land, and other facilities to ANCOP so that ANCOP can take over the project. I continue to support the needs of the school while some sisters also help maintain the school ground and as helping hands to the teachers.
As I watched the students, parents, visitors and the handmaids singing the PNG national anthem, reciting the PNG pledge, and the tribal dancing that followed during our first year anniversary celebration, I cried silently because I was extremely touched by how God filled my land with His glory when it was used to be filled with tall, wild grasses and the place was empty. Now I could hear the children praying the prayers that Jesus taught us, and the Hail Mary, to honor our blessed Mother. What a great joy to know that I have plenty of grandchildren here in PNG whenever these school children greet me “good morning Bubu (Lola) Del”.
As I look back, there were times when I asked impatiently, “how can I keep my faith while waiting on God to answer my prayer”? But he planned out everything to interwine perfectly in the end. God has His timetable. My original dream was only to run a literacy class for the handmaids who cannot read and write so that they can read the Bible, but God is so amazing that 13 years after the first literacy class, He gave me a humble literacy school where a mother and a son goes to school together. The mother goes to the literacy class and the son to the early learner class, and the son told the father “we learned many things… new things in the school.” I praise God, for He blessed us with CFC and ANCOP as his instrument to strengthen family and community relationships and to bring more and more people closer to Him.
We have 48 new CFC HOLD members who were ANCOP literacy students. They now attend household prayer meetings and prayer assemblies in town, even if they have to walk tens of kilometers from their village to the main highway to catch a bus, rain or shine, and with the constant fear of rascals on the road. I could not believe listening to those sisters who previously cannot read but are now confident to hold the microphone to read the Bible. They openly shared powerful stories of their transformation. It is very inspiring to witness these sisters share about how the Holy Spirit transformed and empowered them in the midst of their poverty, marriage and family problems. We felt emboldened to serve God more.
God continues to support and inspire us. Our bishop, Most Reverend Rozario Menezes, was very supportive of our work that he presented a video of our Markham literacy school to the recent ANCOP congress in Manila to rally for support. The bishop also plans to make the village at Markham Bridge another new parish of the Diocese of Lae. It's all coming together!
The blessings kept on pouring. On 30 September 2019, Bro. Bong Bernardo, former president of CFC ANCOP Australia, came for the groundbreaking ceremony for the new school building to be constructed inside the school compound. This time, the building will be made of steel materials, and no longer the bush materials of the current building. He announced that funds for the construction was already underway, coming from several ANCOP partners. Thank you bro. Bong and praise God for this.
All the while, I thought, it was only the Handmaids who committed to work on this project. But now we cannot count the number of people that God had sent to support our work with the poor through ANCOP.
We are most grateful to our ANCOP family in Australia who pioneered the huge support for this project, led by brothers Dom, Goody, Ruel, Bong and sisters Josie, Lolit, and Alida. They led and opened the gates for more financial support of the school.
God will indeed make a way to sustain what I and the local Handmaids have started.
I praise God for He allowed my dreams to come true, all for His greater honor and glory!
Postscript: The Markham School has now been expanded and became a concrete building, thanks to the support of CFC ANCOP Australia and other benefactors. Watch this video for an update.
