Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada - B.C.
Press Release

Filipino youth integrate with their community, reclaim their roots and celebrate rich history of their struggle!

April 23, 2008

Through performance, visual arts, poetry, and music, Filipino youth in Vancouver presents “Roots, Rhymes, and Resistance XI: Balik sa Komunidad, Balik sa Ugat” on Friday, May 23, 2008, 6:30 – 10:00p.m. at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School, Vancouver, BC.

Roots, Rhymes, and Resistance (RRR) was first organized in 1999 by Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance’s (UKPC/FCYA). This annual cultural event gathers Filipino youth and its community to examine the issues affecting them and celebrate the rich history and struggle of the Filipino people. RRR, since it’s first inception, is part of UKPC/FCYA’s Philippine-American War Campaign, and has since become a staple component of the month long Asian Heritage Month.

This event’s theme “Balik sa Komunidad, Balik sa Ugat” (when translated from Tagalog to English means “Back to the Community. Reclaiming our Roots”) aims to educate Filipino youth about the importance of being positively involved with their Filipino community, and learning about the rich history and struggle of the Filipino people in the Philippines and abroad.

“Understanding the Filipino people’s struggle and resistance under Spanish colonization, up to today’s U.S. imperialism, Filipino youth can have a better grasp of the forced migration of millions of Filipinos, including us here in Canada,” according to Albert Lopez, member of UKPC / FCYA. In 2007, Lopez spent 10-months in the Philippines through UKPC / FCYA’s exposure program, “Balik Ugat”.

According to Lopez, “For nearly 500 hundred years, until now, the Filipino people continue to face the tremendous adversity of political and economic crisis in the Philippines. The worsening exploitation and plunder of the Filipino people today under the current U.S. – Arroyo regime has resulted to over 3,000 Filipinos leaving the country every day.”

The Philippines is now the number-one source of migrant labour in the world, and relies greatly on the hard-earning remittances to keep the country afloat. There are over 10 million Filipinos, majority are women, working outside the Philippines in “3D jobs” (dirty, difficult, and dangerous jobs). Canada is one of the destinations for these Filipino migrant workers, whom many come under the Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

Most newly-arrived Filipino youth are brought to Canada by mothers who worked under the LCP. LCP’s restrictions force women to leave their families behind until finishing 24-months of live-in work within 3 years. Many Filipino youth face the trauma of family separation, forced migration, and family reunification. According to a study conducted by UKPC/FCYA, in collaboration with the Philippine Women Centre (PWC) and University of British Columbia (UBC), the average year of separation of families coming to Canada through the LCP is five years. In many cases, the separation is longer.

“Once in Canada, many newly-arrived Filipino youth face difficulty reuniting with their mothers whom they often see as strangers,” Lopez, child of a former live-in caregiver, stated. “Adding to the trauma is the lack of genuine support and services for the Filipino community a ‘multi-cultural’ Canada. It is therefore not surprising that Filipino youth have the second highest drop-out rate in Vancouver high schools,” Lopez added.

Since 1996, UKPC/FCYA continues to educate, organize, and empower Filipino youth both born in Canada and newly-arrived on issues such as identity and culture, racism, migration, family separation and reunification, women issues and gender questions. Over the years, UKPC/FCYA has grown into a national organization of Filipino youth and students with chapters in major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

Through jam-packed Arts and Culture events such as this year’s RRR XI: Balik sa Komunidad, Balik sa Ugat, Filipino youth continue to uphold the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine development and justice for the Filipino community here in Canada, the Philippines, and around the world.

Roots, Rhymes, and Resistance XI: Balik sa Komunidad, Balik sa Ugat
Friday, May 23, 2008, 6:30-10p.m.
Venue: Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School Auditorium, 419 East 24th Ave., Vancouver, BC

For more information, please contact:
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of BC
c/o Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell St. Vancouver, BC V6A 1G7
Telephone: 604.215.1103
Email: ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net
Website: http://kalayaancentre.net

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