ANCOP Housing

Solid Roof, Solid Walls: Johanna’s Great Joy
– Sorsogon City, Philippines –

It’s a glorious new day for Johanna Fer and her family! Two years ago, the settlement where Johanna lived in Sorsogon City, the Philippines, was demolished. The mayor moved the family to a temporary shelter, where Johanna became trapped in chronic instability. How could the family escape it?

Johanna’s work doing laundry, combined with husband Dionisio’s construction job, added up to less than $9 a day. Mired in this deep poverty, it took everything they had to feed and raise their children: Joben, Jodette, Janette, Jody, Jenelyn and Dionisio Jr.

Before they came to Sorsogon City, the family had been staying with relatives, but that home always flooded during rainstorms. They moved to find a better situation, and later were able to apply for an ANCOP house through their participation in Couples for Christ.

As you can see, that turned out to be the right decision! At long last, Johanna and her family now have a permanent – and sturdy – place to call home. Your steady gifts as a Cross Mission Partner help us provide safe housing for the poorest of the poor like Johanna’s family. In Sorsogon City alone, you’ve helped us fund 30 homes that are now giving shelter and stability to once desperate families.

Mission Partner support also helps to provide safe housing through our partner in the field, Answering the Cry of the Poor (ANCOP). ANCOP is the humanitarian arm of Couples for Christ (CFC), a Vatican-recognized international lay organization, founded to help CFC’s efforts in “Building the Church of the Poor.” No longer will they have to worry whether they will have a roof over their heads six months from now, or how badly their floor will flood when it rains. 

You have changed their lives!