Conference theme:
Empowering Philippine Women in Europe:
their participation in the Development Processes in
Europe and in the Philippines -
the Gender dimensions of migration and development”.
Babaylan EU 15th Anniversary Conference
Babaylan, the Philippine Women’s Network in Europe celebrated its 15th Anniversary by holding a Conference and General Assembly in Cologne, Germany on the week-end of October 26th to 28th. With 65 attendees from 8 out of its 10 member countries, network members and officers from platform organisations in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland touched bases with each other under the theme of Gender, Migration and Development.
The first day welcomed the participants with a dinner after which was a presentation of the country delegates and guests. The evening programme continued with a presentation of “In de olde worlde:Views of Filipino Migrants in Europe,” edited by Interim Executive Committee member and Founding Chair of Babaylan Denmark, Filomenita Mongaya Høgsholm. This migration opus featured several contributions from members of the Babaylan Europe network. The evening culminated with the presentation of a survey entitled “Coming of Age” about Filipinas growing old in Switzerland.
The conference on the second day entitled “The Gender Dimensions of Migration and Development” was an exercise in analysing migration through the perspective of gender. The whole day affair that featured as Keynote Speaker the Philippine Ambassador to Germany and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Delia Domingo Albert, the first woman to serve in the exalted post. In her long public service career in diplomacy she has pioneered many innovations, including getting married to a foreign national while on service abroad. While the assembly openly expressed delight in the candid and lively informative words of the Ambassador, she too expressed appreciation for the Babaylan women by staying on for the rest of the day instead of hurrying back to Bonn.
After an overview of Babaylan Europe’s progress and milestones by Interim Committee members Adora Fischer and Malu Padilla, a panel presentation featuring Kekeli Kpognon from the Europe-wide African women network Akina Mama Wa Afrika, and Bernice Roldan, advocacy officer of the migration NGO Unlad Kabayan-Philippines and Sally Rousset of Babaylan France. The afternoon session was the time for the women to break up into workshops in parallel with such diverse topics as “Remittances as instrument for development,” which welded with “Putting up a migrant women’s savings and credit cooperative,” a hands on workshop anchored by Diwata, Babaylan’s platform organization in Greece. There was a workshop on “Gender and Literature in the Cultural Context” which delved into gender stereotyping as reflected in Filipino fairy tales. The last two workshops indulged in the political aspects of migration in such topics as “Developing a Filipina Migrant Agenda in Europe” and “Campaign of the Domestic Workers in Europe” which were both action-oriented. But in fact all the workshops had plenty of recommendations which should form the basis of the policies that have to be delineated by the new Babaylan Executive Commitee that was elected on the last day of the Celebratory week-end, following the Babaylan Congress.
Elected to the new Executive Committee under a slight amendment of a new horizontal structure were Adora Fischer (Switzerland), Lina Gschwend (Swtizerland), Tess Selibio (Netherlands), Filomenita M. Høgsholm (Denmark) and Judy Jover (Denmark). Maya Jezewski of Babaylan-France was also elected as alternate member.
As a light touch to the 3-day affair, there was on the second day, Saturday a Cultural Night with dance and songs plus a Tombola that abounded in prizes, generously donated by the eight member countries represented under this special occasion of the 15th Birthday of Babaylan, the Philippine Women’s Network in Europe.
The 3-day affair was hosted by Philippine Women’s Forum (PWF), Germany, under the coordination of Marylou Hardillo-Werning.
