Hope Shines Bright

Last March 19, my daughter graduated from her kinder school. She received two gold medals and seven special academic awards for her exemplary performance. I was deliriously happy for such recognition of my daughter’s achievement in school.

Amazingly, such happiness was doubled when the emcees called me up stage and awarded me the “Best Mommy Award”. Wow! All my sacrifices and hard work as a mother was publicly recognized and rewarded. It was really very inspiring and empowering!

Thus, women empowerment is about recognizing and rewarding our sacrifices and hard work, our potentials, our worth and dignity as a human being. In a developing country like the Philippines, the problem of poverty cast women in the margins of society. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 22.6 percent of 92 million Filipino are living below $1.00 a day and 51 percent or 9.4 million families said they are poor.

Women suffer the most in times of crisis in a backward agricultural country like the Philippines. They are the shock absorbers of such devastating realities. They augment family income and forced to accept the most menial and drudging jobs in factories and are made to replace men to effect cut in wages. They worked as laundry woman, domestic helpers, scavengers and vendors. They work as domestic helpers overseas and even engaged in prostitution.

It is in this context that I continually dedicated my life for the empowerment of the poor women in our community. I painstakingly organized women’s groups, conduct education and information campaigns on issues affecting women and children. I patiently organized networks of advocates and lobby for policy reforms for the welfare of women and children. I joined social mobilizations as a form of social pressure to government in providing recognition and attention to women’s and children issues.

In August 11, 2006 the worst oil spill in Philippine history wrought havoc to the already miserable lives of Guimaras population. Rich marine resources whom majority of the people rely for their daily existence was heavily devastated making them poorer and dependent on relief assistance.

I took the initiative in responding to such devastation by founding SAVE OUR LIVES, SOS Panay and Guimaras . It is a broad alliance of environment and human rights advocacy composed of non-government organizations, scientists, academe, legislators, artists, students, medical students and practitioners, church people and affected local communities who joined hands and committed themselves in addressing the concerns and issues caused by Petron’s M/t Solar oil spill in Guimaras Island .

We have gained victories in our fight for the immediate removal of the sunken vessel and additional rehabilitation funds from the government. But the greatest victory we have had was the formation of women’s organizations.

Evelyn is a mother of four children. She is forty five years old and her economic livelihood is seashell gathering while her husband goes fishing. When the oil spill occurred, their source of livelihood was lost.

“I’ve learnt that poverty and the oil spill accident is not God given. Our need for food, medical care and livelihood are our basic rights. Our rights for rehabilitation and environmental justice must be demanded from the government. Indeed, through organized and collective action for structural change, we can end poverty”, said Evelyn.

With the coming of our national election on May 10, the Filipino women’s movement faced another great challenge. A campaign for a single vote for deserving candidates that truly cares for the poor women and children is a hard work under highly patronage and violent electoral climate.

But for those women who struggle for basic change hope shines bright. Such brightness will linger on as we empowered everyday every poor woman to raise her voice, calling an end to poverty and inequalities.