SR. MARY FRANCIS AņOVER, RSM, is a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy and is the newly-elected National Coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) after pioneering campaigns of the rural poor in the countryside at the expense of her personal security. She is working through RMP by cooperating and living with the rural poor to assert their rights to land and other human rights, and joining them in their struggle for genuine agrarian reform.
Her advocacies and causes involved cases of rape, sexual violence, land rights, human rights, women political prisoners, women farmers, and children. She feels connected to these issues being an activist who survived the Marcos Dictatorship. She also felt the plight of agricultural workers when she immersed herself with them which compromised her health due to the massive pesticide spraying in the plantation. Today, she leads the campaign against extra-judicial killings as these are happening in rural provinces. She directed various initiatives for the promotion of the civil and political rights of the rural poor communities ranging from documentation of human rights violations, facilitating sanctuary services for the peasant leaders at risk, campaigns and lobbying efforts. She devoted her life to selfless service to the downtrodden, mindless of the personal risks attached to her involvement, firmly grasping to her rule: "the poor needs help today, not next week."
Nominated by: AMIHAN Northern Mindanao
E-mail: amihan.nmr@gmail.com
Phone No.: (088) 850-5854
