Looking Back: 5th Year of FILMIS in the Netherlands

 
By Jacob O. Apostol
The Hague-The Netherlands
November 12, 2018
 


The Hague-November 3: It is worth remembering the famous words of George Santayana, an American man of letters, “Those who cannot remember the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it”.



Celebrating our 5th year anniversary on November 3, 2018 is a milestone. Now, we have a reason to look back and re-examine both our successes and failures as an organization. Being a student of history, I know very well that it provides us with some lessons if we discover the reasons why they happened. Surely, this will give us a whole picture of what we ought to do in the future as we face new challenges.



“Time flies so fast” as what some people would say whenever they try to recall or savor the past or fleeting moments. I feel it was just only yesterday when I and three of my colleagues Melanie Joy Escano, Bing Molabin, and Vergie Rubino started forming the Filipino Migrants in Solidarity (FILMIS) five years ago.



The idea of forming FILMIS started to crop up during our Ateneo-LSE class. We were among the first batch of students (LSE 21) who graduated in 2014. Inspired by the Ateneo–LSE program, we established an organization for Filipino migrants who believed that their God-given potentials can be used in the service of the Filipino community and humanity in general. There are many ways to serve the community and your country. You can dance to promote the Filipino culture; you can paint to show our heritage, and you can use your experiences and knowledge to articulate social issues that may benefit humanity.



 Naturally, like other organizations, we have had ups and downs in the course of pursuing our organizational objectives. But, being the FILMIS president, I always carry a responsibility to ensure that, at the end of the day, we   stand together as one with an unwavering commitment to fulfill our sworn duties to the community, so to speak.

We celebrated the 5th year anniversary of FILMIS with a theme: “Dream, Believe, and Achieve”. The chosen theme carries a strong message that success starts with dream. “Believe in yourself that you can achieve your dream. Don’t stop dreaming until you get”, said Melanie Joy Escano who is one of the FILMIS founders.

The celebration also aimed to raise funds to support the school needs of the poor children in Mindanao. We believed that it would be worthier for the anniversary to do a charity cause since this was in line with one of our organizational objectives – education.



Sayril Sarro, the founder of HOPE charity, spoke vividly about the lamentable situation of Muslim children. She did it with a video, showing the pictures of innocent faces of children who seemingly beckon our sense of compassion and charity. Sayril echoed her dreams for these children during her speech:

“I have a dream that I would like to share with you tonight. A dream that one day the poor Muslim children, all the indigenous, all the children walking with barefoot will have shoes and slippers on their foot. I have a dream to provide toys for the children whose parents cannot afford to buy them toys to play. I have a dream to provide school supplies for the children who want to write, draw and paint. I have a dream to provide food for the malnourished and hungry children so they don’t have to steal or beg for food for survival. I have a dream to provide new and clean clothes for children with grubby, tattered, worn out and torn clothes”.

Moreover, the presence of Ambassador Jaime Victor B. Ledda, as the guest speaker, complemented an aura of the celebration. He praised the advocacies of different Filipino organizations during his speech for active involvements in charity works and endeavors that are beneficial to the Filipino community.



Another dramatic twist of the celebration was a surprise announcement I made. To the bewilderment of some guests, I suddenly said, “Since yesterday evening, FILMIS has been officially registered as an association under the Dutch law”.

Of course, the announcement would not be complete without introducing to the audience the new two board members of the association, Marijke Bijl and Atty. Florisa Almodiel, whose efforts has made this dream a reality. Their willingness to be part of FILMIS was highly commendable and unexpected.



We also honored Marijke Bijl for her advocacy to promote migrants’ rights. She is a woman who has devoted her precious time to helping out migrants from all walks of life, both regular and irregular. For FILMIS, she is an embodiment of compassion.

I always affirm my conviction that we can use our individual talents and creativeness in the service of humanity. If all the people do their shares, for sure, we will have a better world to live. Life is precious if we live a legacy that benefits our community and the world in general. Let’s enjoy our life with a purpose and value.

 

The FILMIS 5th year anniversary was also an opportunity to showcase our memorabilia such as photos, flyers and posters of FILMIS activities for the past five years. The exhibition also displayed some drawings and magazine articles featuring FILMIS activities. One Indonesian visitor said, “The drawings were unique as they reflected the sad and funny stories of migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands.”



We were so thankful to all the guests, officers and members of MCVO, MABIKAs, Bayanihan, Jesus Is Lord (JIL), Ateneo-LSE, Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU), for attending our event to support us.