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St.John Center
Construction of a Formation Center |
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| Project Title: |
Saint John Center, construction of a formation center |
| Legal Representation: |
Saint John Congregation
Banawa Hills P.O. Box 1160
6000 Cebu City Philippines
+63 (32) 253 0125
cebu@stjean.com
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| Executor in chief: |
Brother Gregory |
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| The Context: |
| In response to the call of Cardinal Vidal, Saint John Congregation (a French religious community) has been present in Cebu for the last twelve years, carrying out its mission of human, but also Christian education, especially towards Seminary of Cebu, some religious community, and also some elementary, high school and college students. |
Cardinal Vidal and some brothers |
Brothers and Sisters of St John in Cebu |
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| The Saint John Center today: |
| The Saint John Center has been in operation for 10 years. Its implementation took place gradually following two major segments, which are well structured and developed today. |
| 1 – Educational support |
Our scholarship program gives access to education to some 80 children from underprivileged families. Their school expenses are financed through overseas sponsors as well as with the association "Children of Mekong".
In close collaboration with the families, some educators support the children during their studies.
Two Filipino employees ensure the follow-up of these children, along with young foreign and local volunteers. The latter are now “alumni” who were once part of this educational program.
Inside the centre, the children benefit from a place of calm, where they can be supervised and accomplish their studies in an environment they do not often find in their homes.
The educators carry out regular family visits, during which they encourage and support these families in their desire to create a space favorable to the development and education of their children.
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| 2 – Classes program formation at the service of the human person. |
 To the young students are offered a series of classes dealing with the person, love, sexuality, work, art, the family, and society. These sessions are in high demand, and the stakes are high because these youth are the future of Filipino society, and often do not receive any civic or moral education to inform their bearings. Additionally, these sessions are important to prevent the consequences of lack of education, for their family life, their Christian life, but also drug addiction, sexually transmittable diseases, Aids… from which they are very often the first victims.
With the same focus of human formation, sessions are also organized for families, companies and other groups.
For those who wish, religious and Christian teachings, based on prayer and the word of God, can complement this human formation.
Around these two aspects, other activities are also been carried out:
- Some youth wish to deepen this training in a more concrete way by joining the “school of life”. Volunteering sessions of 6-12 months in duration, enable youth to take part in the life of the educators and participate in the facilitation of the scholarship program and of the under-mentioned activities. This school of life accommodates 10 young people.
- An evangelization group gathers approximately one hundred youth from 15 to 30 years old. They have a social and charity mission in the most underprivileged areas, particularly towards the families and children living in the street. In their ministry, they bear witness of their love for God.
- Week ends as well as summer camps are also being organized.
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| The Construction of the center: |
| Our Need |
Up until now, a house was rented in Cebu to shelter the Saint John Center.
- This situation is rather precarious as we are forced on average every two years to move into another house, which does not make regular attendance at the centre, by the youth easy. Participants of the scholarship program are the first to suffer from this situation.
- The houses rented are not functional and remain quite inadequate to the needs of the centre.
- The ever-growing participation of youth in our various activities obliges us to build a bigger and more suitable house.
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| Description |
It is for all these reasons that we have bought a land in the very heart of Cebu.
This land for the St John Center is now owned by the Saint John Foundation (Saint John Congregation and lay people) recognized as a legal entity in the Philippines.
We have had recourse to an architect who prepared a pre-project comprising:
- a three floors building
| First floor |
a large conference room, Comfort Room, welcoming office |
| Second floor |
secretary office and study room for the scholarship program, kitchen and common rooms for the programs representatives and staff. |
| Third floor |
two separated areas with 3 rooms each for the lodging of the managers of the scholarship program and the volunteers. |
- a chapel
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| Cost |
| 1 euro = 63.944 Filipino peso (PHP) according to the Nov/17/2006 exchange rates |
| |
PHP |
EUR
(rounded up to the nearest thousand) |
| Land |
2,600,000 |
41,000 |
| Main building |
8,700,000 |
136,000 |
| Chapel |
1,200,000 |
19,000 |
Devaluation
(+ 10 % of the constructions) |
990,000 |
15,000 |
| TOTAL |
13,490,000 |
211,000 |
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| Constructed surface of the main building |
540 m2 |
Costs/m2: 252 € |
| Constructed surface of the Chapel |
84 m2 |
Costs/m2: 226 € |
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| Proposal for a co-funding plan |
| Saint John Congregation |
Land purchase |
41,000 € |
Realized |
| Private donation from England |
Chapel |
18,000 € |
Realized |
Church in Need (30,000)
French donations (40,000) |
Parking lot and Main building |
70,000 € |
Realized |
Kinder missionswork (30,000)
Private donations from France (20,000) |
Main building 2nd floor |
50,000 € |
Realized |
| Private donation from England (8,500) |
Main building 3rd floor |
32,000 € |
75% to be found |
| TOTAL |
211,000 € |
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