to spread JOY Teacher with a MISSION

is a teacher at Mary Help of Christians – a school run by Salesian Sisters in Minglanilla, Cebu. Joy Mission

As a teacher in a Salesian School Joy practices Don Bosco’s Preventive System in and out of the classroom.

Joy takes charge of 100 boys, ages10 –16, who serve at Holy Mass as Knights of the Altar. She has done this for 6 years now. AT SCHOOL

But her youth work does not stop at school. It goes beyond school hours. As Salesian Cooperator, Joy works in the Archdiocese of Cebu in the Commission on Youth.

Joy is an officer of F.U.E.L. - the Family of United Empowered Leaders whose aim is to unite all leaders of the different youth organizations in Cebu.

Joy injects Salesian Spirituality among the youth of Cebu. After being exposed to the Salesian Charism, the youth can only be like Joy - happy. Through her work in the diocese

the WIFE caring for a very HOUSE BIG

until Don Bosco called her to be one of the first Cooperators in Cebu. was already happy as a simple wife leading a quiet married life in 1977 Amparo Fuentes

Little did she know at the start that the Lord was preparing her for tremendous tasks beyond the comforts of her small home. What followed then was a string of varied apostolates among the disabled, the blind, the prison inmates and slum dwellers.

She first started with the spiritual rehabilitation of disabled individuals - men and women aging 16 to 60 years. Only after 3 years of formation, Amparo was elected Coordinating Secretary to lead the Cebu Chapter of Cooperators in their work. All trainees of the Area Vocational Rehabilitation Center in Cebu were given weekly catechism and yearly retreats by the Cooperators under her leadership.

Cooperators soon worked too at CRCI - the city’s institute for the blind. Later on Amparo let the cooperators extended the same services to the blind who graduated from AVRC.

Under Amparo’s leadership, the Cooperators also ventured to go for prison apostolate. At Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center, Cooperators visited and instructed inmates in prison until they were forced to stop due to security reasons.

Among the sidewalk dwellers, the Cooperators also went. Braving to help the people who inhabited the sidewalk near the pier at GOTIACO, Amparo and the rest of the Cooperators found themselves in the midst of people who are ex-convicts or at least in trouble with the law --- living by scavenging or stealing.

& CHITA Ronnie THE WINNING TEAM

Ronnie and Chita Laburada, besides being husband and wife, are both Salesian Cooperators. Both are members of the National Training Team of the Boys Scouts of the Philippines. Ronnie is also Lay Minister of the Eucharist in his parish where he also animates the Knights of the Altar.

And when Cebu started as a new Salesian Province in 1992, he was appointed its first provincial coordinator. Ronnie became a Salesian Cooperator in 1985.

Team of husband and wife – this is the secret of Ronnie’s success as a Salesian Cooperator. For 3 years Ronnie and Chita taught together for free at the Mary Help of Christians School, Cebu when the school started.

Together Ronnie and Chita continue to lead the Chapter of Salesian Cooperators at Lawaan. In particular they lead the Cooperators at a Sunday Oratory in Maghaway – a remote mountain barrio in Cebu – where they have songs, prayers, recreation and catechism as well as a feeding program.

Husband and wife, Ronnie and Chita, together lead the Salesian Cooperators to help the young people not reached by the Salesians.