Damayan leaders plan the next three years!

2024 Dayaman Organizing Retreat Summary: Damayan leaders plan the next three years!

Last weekend, Damayan staff, Board, and worker leaders traveled to Stony Point, NY, for our Damayan Organizing Retreat to collectively assess, do visioning, and plan for 2024! Highlights include:

US Situationer: Leah Obias, Director of Policy and Strategy at Race Forward and Damayan supporter, presented the current events in the US. They highlighted the importance of solidarity with Palestine and the presidential elections and its implications to immigration policy.

Philippines Situationer: Rena, media liaison at Defend Jobs Philippines, discussed the struggles of jeepney drivers since the Filipino government’s strict and anti-poor consolidation and ‘modernization’ policies.

2023 Year in Review: We collectively identified our accomplishments and challenges in 2023, and recommendations how to move forward. We were proud of continuing to reunify families, win stolen wage and labor trafficking cases, and facilitate dozens of workers’ rights workshops!

Three Year Vision: We collectively envisioned what Damayan will look like in three years, and we all agreed that it’s high time to bring Damayan home to Little Manila in Woodside, NYC!

2024 Planning: We created collective goals for 2024 which included serving more Filipino migrant workers in NYC, ramping up our workers’ rights campaigns, and releasing more reels to attached new members!

The 2024 Damayan Organizing Retreat was a pivotal time for us to recenter ourselves in our mission in fighting for workers’ and immigrants’ rights by expanding our community and programs! One of our programs is our free legal clinic on Saturday, February 17, 2023, 11am at The People’s Forum. If you have a potential labor or immigration case, RSVP is required so register TODAY at damayanmigrants.org/2024-0217!