MRMF

A responsive agent for the transformation of underprivileged upon groups and underdeveloped area towards their becoming fully empowered communities.

Inspired by the Assumption Charisma as lived by Mother Rosa Maria to transform society for God through the full development of communities in the Spirit of the Gospel.

The Mother Rosa Memorial Foundation, Inc. (MRMF) is a social development foundation organized and operated by the alumnae of the Assumption College and their friends in memory of Mother Rosa, a French Religious of the Assumption who dedicated 63 years of her life to the education and formation of generations of Filipino youth.

The MRMF began their activities in 1965 in Sta. Ana, Manila where they ran a day-care center and sewing workshop.  At the request of the barrio folks of San Simon, Pampanga for a technical high school, they opened the Assumpta Technical High School in 1970.  ATHS offers a regular academic high school curriculum plus technical courses in a catholic environment.

In 1972, San Simon was flooded for two months and out of the relief and rehabilitation efforts offered by the Foundation, the San Simon Integrated Rural Development Program (SSIRDP) was born.  SSIRDP was a program for social upliftment primarily through non-formal education.  Viewing development from the perspective of the totality of the human person is his social-cultural, economic and spiritual dimensions; the SSIRDP had six major components:  community education, agri-business development, health and nutrition, Christian value formation, and organizational and cooperative development.

Furthermore, they have expanded their operations from four barrios to thirty one barrios and from primarily non-formal education and organization of farmers to the education of landless rural workers, women, student, out-of-school youth and other low-income sectoralgroups.  They have reached the levels of a professionalization that enables the original beneficiaries to share their talents for income generation, management and organization with other farmers and sectoral groups through seminars and lectures by the Ugnayan Farmers Training Center.  Their strategies are now being replicated in other provinces.

The Assumpta Technical High School and San Simon Integrated Development Program are partners in social development through formal and non-formal education.  This is the MRMF’s contribution to the development of a comprehensive rural development strategy, a strategy now being replicated in other areas of the country.

In 1998, MRMF has started another apostolate, the Tri-Center Rural Enterprises Services Project (TRESP).  It was created to generate rural employment, increase rural income, provide higher standards of living and minimize migration to the urban areas.

TRESP intended to assist existing rural-based cottage and small-scale entrepreneurs by way of strengthening and expanding their business so that they can hire more employees.  In the process, they were supposed to also contribute to rural economy by purchasing more from suppliers and paying taxes.  Unlike with the micro-enterprises and backyard IGP’s, cottage and small-scale enterprises could immediately hire people within the locality.

MRMF’s dream is to turn over TRESP to a trained and organized entity of beneficiaries who will sustain the project indefinitely.

To date, TRESP was turned over to an organized group and renamed it Foundation for Enterprise Management Innovations, Inc. (FEMI).

Then until now, it has been one act of love after another.  And for the people of San Simon, the MRMF through its fruitful and generous members has become a symbol of hope.