Hi! As we start our blog and communication with people throughout the world, we'd like to first introduce ourselves and tell you about our organization.
Casa Miani-Arvedi is located in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines. It is a home for school-aged boys from Negros Oriental as well as other places in the Visayas and Mindanao region of the Philippines. Most of the boys in our care are either orphans, street children, or from extremely poor families. At Casa Miani, the child's essential needs such as food, shelter, and education are provided to them at least until their family or a foster family is able to care for them. The house has a capacity of 40 children. The house and children are run and cared for by the brothers and priests who live at the center as well as a social worker who arrives daily. Brother Lamberto (Ambet) H. Timbol is the current director of the center. Brother Ambet arrived in 2001 with Father Lino Juta and together they helped start and oversee the construction and formation of the orphanage.
Casa Miani-Arvedi is one of 5 Casa Miani orphanages in the Philippines run by the Somascan Fathers whose founder is St. Jerome Emiliani. Casa Miani-Arvedi is the 4th orphanage to be built. In the year 2001, Mr. and Mrs. Arvedi from Italy donated the funds for the building and construction began. One year later, the house and chapel were completed and in June 2002, the first 15 children to live at Casa Miani were accepted. The inauguration of the new house was held on February 3, 2003 in coordination with the Feast of St. Jerome Emiliani which is celebrated by Somascans all over the world ev
ery year on February 8th. It was a joyous occasion!
Eight years later, Casa Miani-Arvedi is still thriving and growing in many ways. The programs/activities at Casa Miani-Arvedi are meant to help with the overall positive development of the boys. Every boy goes to school at either the local elementary or high school and at home at Casa Miani, the boys take part in daily and weekend activities such as life skills, literacy and tutorials, sports, computer literacy, music lessons and singing with the Vox Orphanorum (the choir composed of the Casa Miani-Arvedi boys and girls from nearby Casa Cittadini), and spirituality of the Catholic Faith and life of St. Jerome Emiliani.
Thank you for reading and following our blog. We are excited to share with you our stories!
Daghang salamat and God bless!
