Damayan Ends 2020 with a Celebratory Community Call

Thank you to 110 community members who attended Damayan’s Annual Holiday Party and first-ever online party on Saturday, December 19, 2020. We were joined by members, new and old, Board members, funders, staff and supporters to celebrate unity, resilience and resolve to prevail amidst the pandemic.

Thank you to the performers that lifted our spirits. Performances included a Christmas song medley from The Outstanding Filipinos of New York Performing Artists and Filipino and American Christmas carols from community members. 

Thank you to Pastor Tim Pantoja, from the Elmhurst Baptist Church, for delivering the opening prayer.

Thank you to the organizers and survivors who reminded us of the significance of our gathering through their speeches. Linda Oalican, Executive Director of Damayan, explained how the pandemic exacerbates struggles already facing the migrant Filipino community. The already marginalized trafficking survivors and community members have to survive the extreme public health, unemployment, violations to workers’ rights violations, social isolation, mental health crisis and increased domestic violence toward women in the home brought about by the pandemic.

Thank you to Alfred, an elderly Damayan member, for narrating the specific hardships of being elderly and unemployed during the pandemic. 

Before the pandemic, our community already faced the crisis of forced migration and exploitation of Filipino migrant workers. Thank you to Bainie and Anila, Damayan members and labor trafficking survivors, for giving powerful testimonials about their labor trafficking experience and how they won their T-visas. 

Damayan increased the resilience of the community by jumping into action during the pandemic. We pivoted to direct rapid assistance to keep Kababayans fed and housed. Through our own fundraising, and collaboration with the NY City Government and NDWA we distributed critical food and financial assistance. All the while, we continued comprehensive case management which resulted in four trafficking survivors receiving humanitarian visas and two families being reunified. In a time of physical isolation, our membership increased by more than 800 in 2020. 

During the pandemic, we celebrate community wins that we gained despite increased struggles. The stories of Ros, Czarina and Shiela are testament to how each individual is more resilient when we support each other. Amidst the lack of global travel, Ros, a Damayan member and labor trafficking survivor, reunited with her son, who she had not seen in years. Czarina, daughter of a Damayan member and labor trafficking survivor, shared her father’s trafficking experience and her family’s ordeal during the pandemic and how Damayan assisted them. We also celebrate Czarina’s academic success in the fall 2020 semester by being on the Dean’s list. Finally, Shiela, a new Damayan member, shared her recent victory of winning her stolen wages from her employer during the pandemic and how Damayan is “a good alliance I can reach anytime I need them.”

All of these survivor stories and the wins in the community demonstrate the resilience of this community because we are unified and have the resolve to prevail amidst forced migration during a pandemic. 

Thank you to Damayan Board members Karina Garcia and Neal Stone who encouraged the participants to donate critical funds to support Damayan’s work. Thank you to Catherine Eusebio, Program Officer at the North Star Fund, for expressing the importance of unity that the community needs. “When the government and the private employers turned their backs on our people, it is our community that sustained us and proves that we need each other for our survival and we can look to each other for support. 

Last but not least, congrats to the eight Eight Damayan members who won raffle prizes throughout the night. 

Isang Manigong Bagong Taon! A Happy New Year!