Bayanihan Celebrates 20 years of Community Service

 
By Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
Communications Officer
Stichting Bayanihan
The Netherlands
 
Rotterdam-October 15, 2011: It is still some hours to midnight when Rose Slotema-Haboc, Stichting Bayanihan’s treasurer, takes off her dancing shoes to give her tired feet a rest.

“We have been here since two o’clock,” she says. “My feet hurt, but I can say that the evening is a success.”

Tonight’s organizers have transformed Sportcentrum West in Rotterdam into a festive hall. Dutch and Filipino supporters have come from as far as Belgium and Gelderland to celebrate Stichting Bayanihan’s 20^th year of service.  Veronica Balbuena-Moes, Bayanihan chairperson opens the event with a welcome speech to the public.

Philippine Ambassador to The Netherlands, Her Excellency Lourdes G. Morales, and Vice-Consul Cynthia Pelayo have also come to celebrate together with members of the Filipino community in The Netherlands.
 


 
During her inspirational talk, the Ambassador acknowledges the importance of Bayanihan’s work and expresses her appreciation of the partnership that exists between Stichting Bayanihan and the Philippine Embassy. The Ambassador refers to the partnership with Stichting Bayanihan in regards to the Gender development project with its focus on au pairs and voices the hope of continued cooperation and partnership in future projects.

Inside the hall, members of the Filipino-Dutch community dance the night away to the rhythm of D J Asian Beat.  A couple of hours earlier, the Benefit auction spearheaded by Rosalie de Wit was closed with success.  Items donated by various sponsors were modelled by a younger generation of Filipinas and Dutch Filipinos. 




When asked what Stichting Bayanihan means to her, Christina Claus, daughter of Stichting Bayanihan’s chairperson says: “Ik ben eigenlijk mee opgegroeid met Bayanihan (trans. I grew up with Bayanihan).”  That she agreed to be one of the models for the evening’s auction stems from feeling at home with Bayanihan.
 
It is a sentiment echoed by everyone who has been touched and who has been involved with Stichting Bayanihan.  
 
Lana Jelenjev-Flores, one of the evening’s emcees and one of Bayanihan’s communications officers, asks the audience who among them has been helped by Bayanihan. The response is inspiring.
 
“It is not only the women in problem situations who are helped by Bayanihan,” Lana says. “The women who have become active volunteers have also been helped.”
 
Lana points to the crucial role that Bayanihan continues to play in the empowerment of Filipino women in the Netherlands.”
 
Lana who came to the Netherlands to be with her Dutch partner, salutes the women  who in one way or another have been involved with Bayanihan’s selfless work. “Bayanihan has inspired and helped a lot of women, not just with its work with au pairs but also with women like me who came in the Netherlands and who have struggled to be integrated in this new environment.”
 
However, as the economic crisis takes its toll on non-profit organizations and as government subsidies are cut, self-help women organizations like Stichting Bayanihan must seek creative ways to raise the support needed if they are to continue the work of “hulpverlening and voorlichting. “
 
Tonight’s celebration also functions as a creative fundraising effort and its success is due to the hard work of the organizers, the Bayanihan ABN team ( Anniversary & Benefit Night team) namely:   Rose Slotema-Haboc, Debbie Villafuerte, Margie Deelen, Genibe Molabin, Tess de Man Selibio & Diana Oosterbeek-Latoza.  These organizers have invested time and energy into planning an event that seeks not only to commemorate Bayanihan’s 20^th year of service to the Filipino community in The Netherlands but also seeks to draw the support of the community which it has served so selflessly.
 


 
In the course of the evening, The Bayanihan Singers entertain those gathered with a short demonstration of their singing talents. A taste, as it were, of the upcoming Christmas carolling project-- another creative way in which Stichting Bayanihan seeks to raise funds.


 
In tune with the evening’s theme which celebrates the talents of women of color, this evening’s activities bear witness to the support coming from the community as well as to the talent that thrives among us. A dance group presents a Filipino folk dance under the leadership of Margie Deelen , an interactive Ifugao dance, which gets  the public moving in time to the Ifugao beat, is led by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and a musical interlude is presented by two Dutch young ladies.
 


 
At regular intervals, attendees retreat to the bar at the other side of the hall for drinks and to partake of Filipino dishes from the food sale organized by Lein Asraei-Balaoing.
 




 
Bayanihan is best symbolized by the image of a community helping each other to carry a house to a specific goal.  True to the image that Stichting Bayanihan, Centrum voor Filippijnse Vrouwen in Nederland has adapted for its logo, it is the supporters and the volunteers as well as the Filipino-Dutch community who carry Bayanihan forward as it seeks to fulfil the goals of emancipation and empowerment of Filipinas in The Netherlands.






 
 “I would like to raise a figurative toast,” Diana Oosterbeek-Latoza (Coordinator and Social Cultural Worker for St. Bayanihan) says. “Here’s to Stichting Bayanihan and to 20 years more of continued service to the Philippine women in The Netherlands.”
 

 

 

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