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For the past 21 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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NEW YORK CITY— A Filipino domestic workers support network was launched Sunday, March 4, in Elmhurst, New York to address the concerns and protect the well-being of domestic workers in the New York and New Jersey area.
More than 100 domestic workers and supporters gathered at the Bonifacio Hall of the Philippine Forum office in Queens on March 4 to kick off the KABALIKAT Domestic Workers Support Network, a project of the Philippine Forum. KABALIKAT, is a Filipino word meaning “shoulder-to-shoulder”. The launching was also timed in celebration of the International Women’s Day which is observed annually on March 8.
The Philippine Forum (PF) is a not-for-profit community organization geared toward raising Filipino American awareness of their roots, rights and responsibilities.
The PF KABALIKAT Network will spearhead monthly activities to discuss domestic worker concerns on legal rights, health and well-being, spiritual needs, social life, family and finances.
“We have a lot of activities lined up,” said Lorena Sanchez, KABALIKAT Co-Coordinator, “Domestic workers will have access to periodic immigration clinics, health services such as check-ups and mammograms, computer lessons. We also have fellowship activities such as line-dancing and sports and recreation for them and their children.”
“We need to develop a support system for them because they are one of the most exploited if not the most exploited section of our community here in New York. Like most of us, they left our country because of the poverty and the lack of job opportunities there. A lot of them left their own children to take care of other people’s children so they can support their families back home,” added Julia Camagong, Co-Executive Director of Philippine Forum.
The March 4 launching began with a poetry reading by KABALIKAT Co-Coordinator, Shirley Cuyugan-O’Brien, a former college history professor in the Philippines and currently working as a domestic worker here in the US.
During last Sunday’s launching of KABALIKAT, New York attorney Cristina A. Godinez led a forum-discussion on migrant domestic worker rights.
“Unlike their counterparts in industrial and commercial establishments, domestic workers are isolated and scattered because they work in private homes. Most of them are undocumented and completely dependent on their employer for day-to-day subsistence,” Godinez noted in her discussion.
“There is little or no economic value attached to domestic work,” Godinez remarked during the open forum, “This notion is reflected in labor laws and regulations. Domestic workers have been left out of certain worker protections. So-called casual employees like ‘babysitters or companions to the elderly,’ for instance, are not covered by minimum wage and overtime labor regulations, even if this type of work enables their employers to engage in other economically productive activities,” she added.
The discussion was followed by a musical presentation by Anne Beryl Corotan of SANDIWA National Youth Alliance and Kaye Mallonga, and a spoken word performance by Hanalei Ramos of Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FIRE).
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THE Philippine Consulate General in New York and the UP Alumni Association-New York Chapter invite everyone to attend an orientation seminar for new Filipino arrivals on Saturday, March 24, at 1:30pm – 5:00pm .
Entitled “New York 101,” the orientation will discuss the services of the Philippine Consulate General, legal status issues and Acculturation and Social Integration.
The seminar will take place at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center at 556 Fifth Avenue (bet. 45th & 46th Sts.) in New York.
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