PR-006-2021
“Everyday should be women’s day,” Consul General Maria Lourdes Salcedo quoted a recent project launched in Australia in reply to a UN report that it shall take 99 years to achieve gender equality.
“In the Philippines, we celebrate the entire month of March as the National Women’s Month by virtue of a 1988 decree by the first woman-president, Corazon Aquino. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Philippine Commission on Women, formerly National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, and the 25th year of the Beijing Platform of Action, the global roadmap for women’s issues,” she added during the International Women’s Day celebration of the Skylark Foundation Australia with the theme Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Loved, Be Safe at Rendezvous Hotel on 7 March 2021.
“Projects to assist women, the youth and the elderly should be at the forefront of activities of the Filipino Community in Australia,” she said noting that majority of Filipino migrants to Australia are women although that is slowly changing in recent years. Gender and development, according to the Consul General, is not about women alone but also about men who support women, and women who support men.
She also encouraged the Filipinos in Australia to let others know of the contributions and achievements of Filipinos to Australia by submitting nomination to the Australia honors and awards program.
At the event, Skylark recognized two outstanding Filipino women, Dr. Mitchie Natividad and Rowena Gatchalian, for their dedication as frontliners at the height of the Covid pandemic in Victoria.
Skylark is a charitable organisation with a primary mission of assisting young students and promoting good health and well-being. Their motto, according to Skylark President Arlene Lucas, is to step forward, reach out and help one another. “We encourage the continual lifting up of women and children in our own lives, in the community and globally,” she pointed out.
