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Welcome without questions

Run by nuns, Welcome Center in Kensington has served immigrants for a decade.

TURNING A PLACE that smells like death into a place that sizzles with life didn't take a miracle. The nuns will tell you that. It took money, sweat, tears and volunteers.

Ten years ago, the Sisters of St. Joseph bought a rundown Kensington funeral home (and adjoining doctor's office) two blocks from K&A and transformed what were once three rowhouses into a bright, spacious Welcome Center to serve the immigrant community. The center is a beauty mark on the plain face of Allegheny Avenue, which bisects Philadelphia at its waist.

The center's opening was timely for Guatemalan Rosa Monroy, who had floated across the Rio Grande on an inner tube with her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Undocumented, she came to reunify her family with her husband, who was legally working in Texas.

The sisters - three of whom work and live in the center; others come in part-time - never ask status, director Sister Eileen Marnien tells me. "That does come up as problems arise," she says. Problems did arise for Rosa, 42, whom Sister Eileen calls "our poster girl for hope."

The center grew out of a literacy project the sisters launched in 1996. A literacy van was quickly overwhelmed, leading the sisters to spend the cash to create a permanent home. The center continues the literacy work, plus classes in citizenship, English and computer basics.

People from more than 45 countries have been served by the center, with Dominicans in the lead, followed by Mexicans and Guatemalans. From Asia, there are Vietnamese; plus Albanians and Polish from Europe; Africans from Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Nigeria; and South Americans from Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

Sister Eileen, who has spent 39 of her 60 years as a nun, beams when she talks of the more than 150 immigrants who studied at the center and became citizens. About 250 people are studying English, either in morning classes taught by nuns and retirees or in evening classes led by university students and other volunteers. These caring Philadelphians turn the former funeral home into "the house with a heart," Sister Eileen says.

The computer room with 12 HP computers - providing an important life-and-job skill - was opened after a grant was secured by the sisters, who have mastered the art of the scrounge. Although they believe God will provide, they also believe that he helps those who help themselves.

Rosa learned English, and with the center's aid became a legal resident. She began volunteering and slowly evolved into a paid Jill-of-all-trades - answering the phone, interpreting, handling intake, maintaining the database. Now enrolled at the Community College of Philadelphia, she plans to be certified as a translator. Thanks to the center, she has safety and a life plan.

"We all have problems, but when you come here they go away. You find love here," says Rosa. "They're always telling people 'You can do it.' "

Rosa is one of the many who have.

The Welcome Center's annual budget is $375,000, a pittance. It will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a fundraising gala May 17 at Chestnut Hill College, which was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph. I can't be there, so I'm sending a check. If you want to help the nuns, mail a donation to the Sisters of St. Joseph Welcome Center, 728 E. Allegheny Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19134.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

Columns: philly.com/Byko