We have very exciting news.

At My Refuge House, it has always been our goal to have our home in the Philippines lead by Filipinos. We recognized long ago that the best case scenario for the girls who call My Refuge House “Home” is to be lead by those who have an integral understanding of their local culture, priorities and heritage. In 2012, in our strategic planning session we set a goal: By the end of 2016, we would appoint Filipino directors to lead all operations in the Philippines.

Rose Ann, Omar and Four of our Board Members: Romy, Florimae, Leah and Yuen.

So you can imagine our delight in announcing to you that in November 2014, a full two years ahead of our plan, Rose Ann Obenque and Omar Burdeos have been appointed as Directors of My Refuge House Philippines.

Rose Ann and Omar with our Previous Program Director when four of our girls graduated high school in May 2014.

Rose Ann, with her background in social work services was appointed as Director of Program Operations and Omar, with his finance and administration background was promoted to Director of Administrative Operations. Both Rose Ann and Omar have been a part of My Refuge House since 2010 and have slowly been promoted to positions of greater leadership within the organization. The two of them make a dynamic team, and were actually pinpointed years ago to eventually take on director roles. It is with joy and gratitude that I can let you know they have accepted the positions!

Omar at work on the construction site, and Rose Ann leading a session with the girls.

This increased timeline would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Ivonn Ellis-Wiggan. Many of you may remember this entry about God answering her prayers to lead her to us THROUGH EMAIL. Well, what we didn’t tell you, is that Dr. Ivonn moved to the Philippines, specifically with the intention of training Rose Ann and Omar to take over Operations in Cebu. Not only did she encourage and lead them fearlessly, she also initiated many other incredible program additions at My Refuge House. You’ll be hearing about many of these additions in months to come, but some of them include a peer leadership program, greater community connections for jobs and therapeutic interventions for our girls, strengths based leadership, more holistic ways to measure success, resiliency strengthening interventions and many more. She has truly been a blessing to My Refuge House and the girls we serve and will continue to work with us as a consultant to support our team in the Philippines.

Dr. Ivonn with her family in the US.

Restoration at My Refuge House would not be possible without the incredible people who make it happen daily. We are bursting with thanksgiving for the people he has brought into our home, staff and girls alike.

Take a moment to congratulate Rose Ann and Omar! And continue to uplift them in your prayers as they take on this  great task.