Nazareth House Welcomes Those Living with HIV/AIDS in the Philippines

While volunteering at St. Joseph’s House in 2014, Noel E. Bordador had the idea to start a Catholic Worker house in the Philippines. Though Bordador’s family immigrated to New York in his early teens, there was one place in the Philippines where he knew he could return to make this Catholic Worker house a reality: his grandmother’s house.

“Our house has only five rooms,” Bordador said. “It’s really not big, but the idea with Dorothy Day was to just do something.”

In 2016, Bordador took action. He went back to his home country and remodeled his grandmother’s home in Manila with the help of his sister. The purpose of Nazareth House, known locally as Bahay Nazareth, was clear from the start: It is a community for those living with HIV or AIDS who do not have adequate financial means to house themselves.

HIV/AIDS in the Philippines

The Philippines is the country with the highest surge of HIV cases in the Western Pacific region. Between 2013 and 2023, there was a 411% increase in daily HIV incidence in the country. In addition to the public health crisis, the Philippines also has a great stigma against homosexuality: Same-sex marriages are not recognized and same-sex couples cannot adopt children in the country. Many LGBTQI individuals are disowned by their families, leaving them with no other place to go. At Nazareth House, these people are welcomed with open arms.

“I was a social worker in New York,” Bordador said. “I specialized in HIV, mental health, and substance issues. I worked in housing programs for unhoused persons living with HIV and AIDS, making sure they didn’t fall through the cracks.”

Before the founding of the house, there was only one shelter for those living with HIV or AIDS in Manila. Bordador approached this shelter to invite guests to join Nazareth House, asking the staff to recommend those who were ready to move on. Out of the three guests they suggested, two of these still live at Nazareth today.

Many of the guests of Nazareth hadn’t lived in a house for years before moving there. “This is what makes the place sort of like a miracle,” Bordador said. “We have food on the table, we cook for each other, and we make sure that everyone does something for each other and the community. That in itself is a giving of oneself.”

Living St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s “Little Way”

These small acts of kindness are what much of Nazareth House is based on. The mission is heavily influenced by St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s “little way,” which focuses on doing small things with great love. 

“This is a place of belonging, not just a shelter,” Bordador said. “It has become sort of like a family; that sense of community is one of the most stabilizing aspects in life.”

Earlier this year, the Catholic Worker website published Bordador’s master’s thesis, titled “Saint Thérèse of Lisieux’s Little Way of Love in the Spirituality of Dorothy Day.” This article focuses on how Dorothy Day interpreted the little way, especially focusing on how she saw these small acts of love as a means to produce positive social change.

Bordador ensures that this philosophy of Dorothy Day is lived out in Nazareth House. When each person’s needs are specifically tended to, they feel seen. “If someone has difficulty affording medical care, whether a roommate or a friend of the house, we help out,” Bordador said. “If they need food, they can come to the house.”

The Birth of Dorothy’s Kitchen

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nazareth’s House ministry of feeding the hungry was especially important for the Manila community. In response to the outbreak, the Philippine government instituted a total lockdown, arresting anyone who left their house. While healthcare workers were exempt from this lockdown, other civilians could only leave on certain days to get food.

Due to the lockdown, some people were stranded in the city with no way to return to their hometowns. They, alongside those who were unhoused before the pandemic, were forced to live on the streets.

“I remember a few patients outside the hospital near us who were discharged but couldn’t go back home. One of them just finished her course of chemo,” Bordador said. “So we cooked a humble meal for them and some of our other homeless neighbors.”

“The trick was how we could get the food without getting arrested,” Bordador continued. “We drafted a friend who is a doctor and he drove us around since healthcare workers were exempt from the lockdown. That’s how Dorothy’s Kitchen was born.”

Today, Dorothy’s kitchen operated on-and-off, depending on the schedules of those living in the house. “When I am in the Philippines,” Bordador began, “I make sure to at least deliver food to another shelter for those living with HIV weekly as a “continuance” of the kitchen.”

In Solidarity with Victims of the ‘War on Drugs’

Another way Nazareth House expresses this love is by supporting the families of people murdered by the government during President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration (2016 to 2022). Duterte declared his willingness to slaughter drug users and authorized the national police to do so. While the number of people murdered during Duterte’s War on Drugs (“Oplan Tokhang”) is hard to pin down, human rights groups estimate the number to be 30,000 or more.

In 2018, Bordador attended a gathering organized by Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an alliance resisting extra judicial killings and seeking justice for the victims and their families. At the gathering, he met Nanette Castillo, a woman whose life was irrevocably changed by these killings under the Duterte administration.

“On October 2, 2017, the nightmare of my life came, the most fearsome nightmare from which I never woke up,” Castillo wrote for the Nazareth House’s newsletter, Magnificat. “When I arrived at the crime scene, my son was sprawled out on the street, dead…. I could not believe that this happened. His mouth and eyes were open. My world fell apart.”

“During those days, there were many killings,” Castillo continued. “Many said they were killed because they allegedly fought against the police, or the police killed them in order to fulfill a quota. Vigilantes or ‘exchange heads.’”

“I can’t accept this. We all can’t accept this,” Castillo wrote. “How crushing and wounding it is to me and my family. Until now the events of October 2, 2017 are still fresh in my memory. It feels as if it just happened. Every day I cry alone, even now. They took away my most beloved child.”

(You can read her entire account in the August 2024 edition of Magnificat.)

Since they met in 2018, Castillo and Bordador have remained in contact. “Last Christmas, she [Castillo] and her daughter baked pastries for political prisoners we visited for their Christmas party,” Bordador said. “She is also a part-time barista for a cafe which is a livelihood program for families orphaned by the drug war. A Redemptorist brother funds the cafe. So I would visit Nanette there, have coffee and chit-chat.”

Castillo’s story inspired Bordador to become more involved with Rise Up for Life and for Rights, and he invites the guests living at Nazareth House to join him and Castillo at these nonviolent protests. Following the spirit of Dorothy Day, these acts of resistance against injustice are indeed acts of love. 

Celebrating Eight Years

In December, Nazareth House will celebrate its 8th birthday. Within the walls of the home where Bordador spent much of his childhood, he has seen some guests grow up before his eyes. “One of my roommates right now is preparing to take his board exam in nursing. I watched him graduate high school. His plan is to pass his exam, get a job, and leave Nazareth to take care of his mother and his family.”

As the future state of the house remains unknown, Bordador has been working with his roommates to ensure that they are prepared in case of closure. In the meantime, guests continue to live in community, helping one another succeed. 

Nazareth House also publishes an occasional paper titled Magnificat which addresses the social justice issues within the Philippines and beyond. For more information, visit their website.