WWW.CROSSCATHOLIC.ORG

2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 240PO Box 273908

Boca Raton, Florida 33427-39081-800-914-2420

PROJECT 0147

Queen of Peace Children’s Home And Formation Center

— Naga City, Philippines —

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Mark 9:37

1

QUEEN OF PEACE CHILDREN’S HOME PROJECT 0147

Project Synopsis

DescriptionProvide food and vitamins for children and salaries for caretakers at a Catholic orphanage for disabled and abandoned children.

PurposeTo save the lives of malnourished, disabled and abandoned children by placing them in a home where they will be fed, clothed, educated, loved and introduced to the Catholic faith.

LocationNaga City, located in the Bicol peninsula on the southeastern tip of the island of Luzon, Philippines.

Cost$66,000 per year, or $5,500 per month, provides food and vitamins for 54 children and the salaries for nine staff members at the orphanage, so the children will get the loving care they need.

Highlights• Poor families in the Philippines,

incapable of providing for their malnourished or severely disabled children, often have no choice but to leave them at the gates of an orphanage.

• Mother Joan Clare and the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor welcome these abandoned and disabled children into Queen of Peace Orphanage in Naga City.

• Queen of Peace Orphanage currently provides shelter, nutritious meals, education, medical care, clothing and a loving, nurturing home environment to 54 children, ranging in age from 7 months to 18 years. Some are so severely handicapped that they cannot feed or clothe themselves.

• The sisters treat all the children with Christ-like love and compassion, regardless of their disabilities and give them new, life-changing hope.

• Cross Catholic Outreach has committed to covering the cost of daily nutritious meals for all the kids and the salaries of the caretakers.

2

QUEEN OF PEACE CHILDREN’S HOME PROJECT 0147

The Need

Poverty amid ProsperityNaga is one of the most prosperous cities

in the Philippines, but it also happens to be located in one of the country’s poorest areas — the Bicol Region in southern Luzon. Naga’s economic opportunities have turned the city into a magnet for poor farmers, who have migrated over the years from the surrounding rural countryside in search of better lives, only to find the city does not always have jobs waiting for them. As a result, the poor have moved into crowded slums, where they live as squatters in small shanties, surviving by begging, sifting garbage for items to sell, or selling fruit on the streets.

Raising children in the slums is always hard, but if a child has a disability, such as hydrocephalus, Down Syndrome, or heart disease, it becomes impossible. In a country where many families earn less than $1 a day and more than 17 million people are undernourished, these parents can barely afford to feed their children enough food to live on, let alone provide the special attention and therapy a special-needs child requires. In desperation, the parents will sometimes leave their child at the door of an orphanage, hoping someone else will be able to give their child the kind of care they could never provide.

Some of these children end up at the gates of Queen of Peace Orphanage, a home operated by Mother Joan Clare and the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. Other children are brought to the sisters by the police, who find them on the streets or in abusive homes. But however they get there, and whatever their handicap, Mother Joan welcomes them as her own and treats them with love and compassion.

To give these children the quality home environment they need, the sisters at Queen of Peace are depending on the help of Cross Catholic Outreach.

3

QUEEN OF PEACE CHILDREN’S HOME PROJECT 0147

Ministry Description

Refuge for Abandoned ChildrenSince 1999, Mother Joan has cared for abandoned, abused and severely disabled children at Queen

of Peace Orphanage. The children range in age from 7 months to 18 years, and some are so severely handicapped they cannot even clothe or feed themselves and will need continuous care the rest of their lives.

Many of the children are malnourished when they first come to Queen of Peace. But Mother Joan nurses them back to health, providing three balanced meals and two snacks every day, plus vitamins and special foods required to help them recover from malnutrition. The kids are fed, clothed, given medical care and even provided with school expenses so they can get an education. Their interaction with the sisters has a positive effect on their religious formation as well, as they learn good habits of prayer and moral living and see firsthand what it means to devote oneself to God.

The sisters’ love for the poor and vulnerable has resulted in many lives saved, like that of baby John Paul, whose mother was struggling to him and four other family members on her small earnings as a laundress. When John Paul first came to support Queen of Peace, he was naked, dirty, underweight, and had a congenital cataract on his right eye. But now, he is a healthy, growing boy, and his infectious smile has made him popular among caregivers at the orphanage.

Cross Catholic Outreach has committed to supporting Mother Joan’s ministry to abandoned and disabled children by covering the cost of food and vitamins and also providing salaries for a social worker, three house parents, and other necessary staff.

4

2700 N. Military Trail, Suite 240 • PO Box 273908 • Boca Raton, Florida 33427-3908 • 1-800-914-2420

© 2013 Cross Catholic Outreach. Cost effectively written, designed and printed in-house.

QUEEN OF PEACE CHILDREN’S HOME PROJECT 0147

Our Promise to You!100 percent of the proceeds of this appeal will be used for this project. In the event that we receive more than

needed to fund this project, additional gifts will be used for other urgent needs in the ministry.

[Ucm1301] [Ubb1103]

Help Now!For over a decade, Mother Joan has been opening her arms to children in need of a home. The Bible

says the poor will always be with us, and for as long as human civilizations have existed, the rich and poor have lived side-by-side. That just means Christ’s calling to serve the poor is a calling we can answer every day, every year and in every generation. As long as there are children who are hungry, there is a compassionate Catholic somewhere with an extra bowl of rice. As long as there are babies in baskets at strangers’ doors, there is someone God has called to take a spontaneous step of faith and open the door.

That selfless spirit is evident in Mother Joan and the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, and that is why their ministry is supported by Cross Catholic Outreach. We are working to sustain the sisters’ work so that defenseless Filipino children do not starve to death or fall through the cracks. But we cannot do it without your help. Your gift to Cross Catholic will not only demonstrate your obedience to Christ’s call to serve the poor; it will truly change a child’s life for the better. The children at Queen of Peace will be loved as sons and daughters of God and given a hope they’ve never known. Won’t you support this wonderful ministry today?