In 1960, Mother Marie Denyse Blachere, then Superior General of the Religious of the Assumption, founded the Auxiliary Missionaries of the Assumption (AMA) in France in response to the call of the Church for lay missionaries.

 

 

The AMA was launched in the Philippine Province in 1962 with the sending of five young lay missionaries, graduates of Assumption College in Manila and Iloilo, to Japan. For the next ten years, thirty one alumnae from Assumption schools and alumnae from other colleges in Manila would be sent to foreign missions in Japan, Africa, and Latin America. Two would be sent to Antique.

 

In 1970, the declaration of Martial Law and the worsening socio-political situation of the country compelled Assumption Sisters to focus their efforts in institutionalizing and integrating programs of socio conscientization and mobilization in their schools. The AMA was re-established as students from Assumption and other colleges began serving urban poor communities in the Metro Manila area through weekly catechesis, leadership training and socio-pastoral projects responding to the demands of their faith and the needs of their country, even at the risk of being labeled as “subversive”. Upon graduation from college, several of these students offered a year or two of voluntary service under the guidance of the R.A Sisters.

 

The AMA continued to evolve. In the Assumption community of Assumption Socio Education Center in Bo. Obrero,  Iloilo, a group of fresh college graduates formed their own volunteer program in 1986- the Auxiliary Missionaries of Assumption Volunteer Program as a response to the call of the times.  With the spirit of nationalism and volunteerism burning in their hearts, they began the program that later was merged with a twin program in  Assumption College in San Lorenzo Makati.

In May 1989, as one of its significant actions for the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation, the College’s Center for Social Concern institutionalized the AMA Service Program as a venue where its graduates could concretize their faith through service.The AMA Service Program was launched with then CSC head Mardi Suplido (Mapa) under Sr. Mary Gertrude M. Borres, r.a.the College dean.  A group of seven (six graduating college students and one professor) was formed as one of the College’s "gifts" to the 150th Jubilee Year of the Religious of the Assumption.  These volunteers were assigned to the different parts of the country specifically, Assumption College, Makati, Bahay Maria Inc., Makati, St. Martin School, Baguio, ASEC, Bo. Obrero, Iloilo, Assumpta Technical High School, San Simon, Pampanga, and SalVaPul BaMur District Management Corporation or SBDMC, Valladolid, Negros Occidental.

In January 1990, during the National Educators’ Congress in Assumption Antipolo, representatives of the Auxiliary Missionaries of the Assumption Volunteer Program of ASEC, Iloilo which was formed three years earlier, and the Auxiliary Missionaries of the Assumption Service Program of Assumption College, Makati, met and decided to put the two similar volunteer programs together. Thus was the Associate Missionaries of the Assumption (AMA) Volunteer Program born. The volunteers during SY 90-91 began to enjoy the combined leadership of Makati and Iloilo. 

 In 1996, the Associate Missionaries of the Assumption Philippines Foundation, Inc. was established.  It continues today in it's mission to form young college graduates in the Catholicfaith through a volunteer program.