International Women’s Month Celebrations, An Interview at She-Ka

Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under Celebration, Promoting Filipino Image | Viewed 524 times

It used to be that year in and year out in the past many years when I was working in an international oganization, I was just an attendee, or a bystander during the celebration of International Women’s Day. It would always be a morning program, a chance for staff to come together with free breakfast and listen to speech after speech after speech. It was just like going through the motions, as we were highly encouraged, short of obliged to attend the programs.

Little did I know that 1-1/2 year later, I would actively attend programs in celebration of the woman, in celebration of the FILIPINA, going out of my busy schedule to share a part of myself, encouraging other Filipinas to be empowered through the use of technology, the internet in particular, and to those who are already using the medium, to help uplift the image of the Filipina, through joining writing contests, and actively participating in SEO related activities.

Through The Filipina Images, Noemi and I in this part of the world, and Lorna, in the US, have accepted invitations for sharing our advocacy and our experiences through talks, participation in women’s activities, and guesting in TV programs.

Last Monday, 3 March, we talked to local women leaders, and a sprinkling of a few men, from different local government units nationwide such as mayors, vice-mayors, vice-governors, Board members, etc.

Wednesday, 5 March, Noemi and I were interviewed by Issa Litton (co-host was Atty. Marissa Manalo) in the morning magazine program She-Ka, on NBN 4. Location was Fernwood Gardens in Quezon City. The Filipina Images has gone a long way since August 2007 when we launched it as a portal for written pieces on everything Filipina. The campaign did not stop in our blogs—now The Filipina Images continues to showcase and honor the wonderful, diverse Filipina images. It complies a lot of unique and inspiring stories about the Filipina, here and abroad. For those of you who have not yet seen our portal, we invite and encourage you to visit it now: http://filipinaimages.com. Contribute your story (we can help you insert the correct hyperlinks to make your written work SEO effective) or join our writing contest.

In the TV program She-Ka, we encouraged the Filipina to use the internet—we know there are still a large number of Filipinos out there, particularly the mothers, the retirees, the senior citizens, and those who stay at home, who have been shy, afraid, or do not have the desire to use the internet, as a first step in bridging the digital divide.

It was interesting to listen to the stories of the other guests: a young councillor from Quezon City and 3 Filipina soldiers from the Marines.

Honorable Councilor Dorothy “Doray” Delarmente who incidentally is also a blogger: Doralicious. Dora, so early in life, has dedicated herself to a public career, taking after the footsteps of her mother. She is a doctor, providing most of her services free for her constituents, at the same time fulfilling her duties as a councillor in her district.

The three Filipina soldiers were a wonder to behold—I saw a lot of patriotism in them. They get to do interesting assignments, like being part of the Balikatan exercises, working their way through parachutes and driving military planes, driving the tanks—one of them was driving a tank out there at the Manila Peninsula would be seige. Want to be part of their team? Go tell it to the marines! Email them at pmc_recruitment@yahoo.com or all (632) 8932121 loc 901 or 991.

There are several other events that Noemi and I are attending this International Women’s Month, like:

8 March (Saturday) 8:30am–12:00nn
Venue: UP Theater
Event: National Women’s Day Celebration (headed by NCRFW)
20 minutes presentation: An overview of WikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net; A Call for more entries to the Filipina Writing Contest
Attendees: 2000 students, NGOs

11 March (Tuesday)
Event: UP Centennial Lecture of Dr. Carol Sobritchea
An overview of wikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net; A Call for more entries to the Filipina Writing Contest

13 March (Thursday)
Venue: Batangas Provincial Capitol, Batangas City
Event: A short message from Vibal Foundation announcing its Women Portal Projects and the partnership with NCRFW to local women leaders and government officials

24-26 March (Monday to Wednesday)
Venue: Miriam College
Event: Women’s Studies International Conference
An overview of wikiPilipinas.org and Filipiniana.net; Filipiniana.net will sponsor one lecture for its (Filipiniana.net Lecture Series) featuring Dr. Carol Sobritchea, the director of the UP Center for Women’s Studies; Announcement of Filipina Writing Stories winners.

Oh, yes, the deadline for submitting entries to the WikiPilipinas Writing Contest is now 15 March.

Photos: courtesy of Noemi (thanks!), and thanks Erwin for taking our photos.

Comments

3 Responses to “International Women’s Month Celebrations, An Interview at She-Ka”

noemi on March 6th, 2008 8:13 am

ganda ni dine! it was great meeting other Filipinas in the set. I am so proud of all the bloggers who in one way or the other helped boost the image of the Filipina.

SexyMom: ha ha ha, Noems—i may be photogenic, but you are telegenic!
mixednuts on March 6th, 2008 4:08 pm

Hi Dine, a few days ago I saw your son Jay and I think that was Noemi at ANC ShopTalk. Galing! Like mother like son.
francesca on March 9th, 2008 6:16 pm

wow, kaka encourage naman.

OKEY yan dine, tuloy mo yan. Not many women does that thse days. Ang dmi nga namang mga kababaehan na puro na lang pag aanak at bahay ang roles.