Children’s Rosary foundress passes away at 69

JOSEFINA ATIENZA Salvaña passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on Thursday, 21 April 2016. Jo was the founder of the Children's Rosary Foundation and a convenor and Founding Co-Chair of the Basic Values Movement, as well as a member of the Parish Pastoral Council of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Quezon City. She was a recipient of the Council of the Laity of Manila's Award for Evangelization.

Jo served as consultant in a number of projects of the UNICEF and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and was a member of a prestigious advisory group on nutrition within the United Nations system which provided expert advice on coordination of nutrition policy among the various UN agencies. Locally, she served in government as Assistant Secretary with the Department of Agriculture, Executive Director of the National Nutrition Council and head of the Philippine Cotton Corporation.

Jo has a Master's degree from Stanford University in the U. S. A. and a Bachelor's and a Doctorate degree in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

She wrote "Living and Sharing the Basic Values of the Filipino People Enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution," which served as the basis for the launching in the Diocese of Cubao, by Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco, DD, of the "Kabanalan at Kabayanihan Program." She also authored "Praying and Living the Rosary with Mary" (2002),"Praying and Living the Rosary with Mary, A Prayer and Study Guide" and "Building Our Nation from the Heart" (2012) which has readings, modules, and prayers on the values of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, published by the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG).

Jo was blessed with the gift of composing "prayer-songs". A number of her songs have been produced by Star Records and Universal Records. Her song "Each Home a Little Chapel" was used by the Communications Foundation of Asia in its video documentary on the Sacrament of Baptism. Her "Let Us Be One" (March of Mary's Army) was used as the theme song of the International Marian Regatta held in New York City in 1999; and as the theme song of a long-running program on television entitled "Heart to Heart".

Jo was a widow and the mother of five grown-up children; had fourteen grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Her father was the late General Rigoberto J. Atienza, a former AFP Chief of Staff; her mother was the late Eugenia D. Suarez.

Jo was most grateful to God for the gift of life, family, the Catholic Church and Catholic education, and the promise of being home in heaven one day.