This week ADRA leaders travelled to Mindanao to sign agreements with two church partners; South Philippines Union Conference and Mountain View College in Bukidnon. These key partnerships will allow ADRA to expand its operations across southern Philippines.

ADRA Country Director, Tom Pignon, commented after the signing, “One of the strengths of ADRA is the partnership that we enjoy with the wider Seventh-day Adventist Church. This local partnership across the country allows us to maintain a readiness to respond to future crisis wherever they evolve; as evidenced by our 2019 humanitarian responses in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.”

ADRA is a faith-based organisation serving as a catalyst for social justice, drawing on its biblical mandate and maximising synergies in relationships between ADRA and the wider Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Philippines. This speaks to its very purpose and reason for being; to serve humanity so all may live as God intended. ADRA’s strategic plan 2018 – 2022 is grounded in a desire to create greater collaboration and closer engagement between ADRA and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Philippines. It is a plan that calls for ADRA to work more closely with our church partners, institutions and other entities, to unlock the potential for ADRA and the Church to have greater impact on poverty and injustice.

In line with this, ADRA recently established a more comprehensive agreement with the Adventist Church in Mindanao (South Philippines Union Conference) to work closely in responding not only to disasters but to identify particular needs and implement community preparedness, protection, peace building and development projects; leveraging on the existing knowledge and networks that ADRA’s local church partners bring.

With the second largest private education system in the world, education institutions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are key partners in enhancing the impact of ADRA’s work.  The newly signed agreement with Mountain View College in Bukidnon presents an exciting opportunity for research collaboration, innovation, internships, academe-industry linkages and community extension work.

ADRA believes that through humanitarian acts we make known the just, compassionate and loving character of God: ADRA looks forward to working closely in this way with the South Philippines Union Conference and Mountain View College.