Women’s History Month events slated in Washington, DC

“The Washington Home of the Philippine Suffrage Movement”exhibit at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center in Fairfax, Virginia. CONTRIBUTED

WASHINGTON, DC — How have the lives and roles of women changed? How are they empowering themselves to be trailblazers in their fields? Or, in the case of those who put themselves in the line of fire, how do they face the dangers of speaking truth to power?

On the evening of March 8, in celebration of International Women’s Day, a panel of distinguished Filipino American leaders will speak on the theme “Filipinas in Business: Making Mindset Matter.”

The speakers will share their experiences on how they overcame challenges and achieved success in their own fields. Hosted by the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Metro DC (PACC-DC), the community forum will be held at the Philippine Embassy, which is co-sponsoring the event.

The featured trailblazers include:

Precious Lopez. She established her sewing business, Sew Magarbo, in 2010 with the goal of teaching fine arts skills to the younger generation.

Cristina Sison has over 20 years of experience in residential real estate sales, and is team leader of Sison Homes. 

Meshelle Armstrong of Kaliwa Restaurant, is the co-owner of Restaurant Eve and the ring mistress behind the other EatGoodFoodGroup of restaurants. 

Sonia Aranza of Aranza Communications is a trusted advisor and was selected to executive legally mandated diversity training to address landmark discrimination cases at several large corporations and government agencies.

Host and panel moderators are Olma Inocentes, lawyer-entrepreneur with more than 20 years of legal, management and administrative experience; and Joni Rayos Samilin, a management consultant and an executive master facilitator who leads personal and professional development workshops across the world.

‘Filipino Women Resist’

On March 7, Thursday evening from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Filipina human rights activist Cristina Palabay will speak about the current human rights crisis in the Philippines and the women’s global resistance. Sponsored by Kapatid and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, organizers have billed this event as a learning opportunity for direct solidarity with women leading the struggle for justice in the Philippines.

Christina Palabay

Palabay, 37, is the head of Karapatan, an alliance of human rights groups in the Philippines.

“The country is one of the most dangerous for activists, with dozens of land rights and human rights workers killed there in 2017,” she says, adding that some of her colleagues had been threatened while others had been booked on false charges.

“Being a human rights defender in a country such as the Philippines, fraught with a hideous human rights record, means putting oneself in the line of fire,” Palabay told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Palabay is also a regional council member of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development and an advisor to Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Rights.

The evening program will be held at Busboys and Poets Takoma, 235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia.

Amnesty International will also feature Palabay the following evening on March 8, along with Atty. Catherine Cruz Sy of the office of Senator Leila de Lima.

The Philippine Suffrage Movement

From March 3 thru April 15, the Philippines on the Potomac (POP-DC) will present an Exhibit of “The Washington Home of the Philippine Suffrage Movement” at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center in Fairfax, Virginia. The exhibit features 6 banners, and draws from a wealth of materials that have been collected and discovered the last three years as part of an ongoing research project by POP-DC.

According to POP-DC’s Titchie and Erwin Tiongson, “The exhibit honors the women, their predecessors, and their modern-day successors. Nearly a hundred years after their visit to the White House, we also mark their ties to the city – the remnants of the lives they lived as Washington’s temporary residents, visitors and, in a few cases, exiles of a world war. Here in their transient home, we remember a group of women’s graceful and fleeting moment on the South Lawn, we honor their struggles, and we celebrate their enduring achievements.”

The event is open and free to the public.

The Philippines on the Potomac (POPDC) is a family project to find traces of Philippine history and culture in DC. Titchie and Erwin Tiongson started the project in September 2012 “when, on a whim, we sat down one evening and started listing all the places in the DC area that we thought had some significance to Philippine-American history and culture. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we knew enough places for a small walking tour and for what we hoped could someday be a Philippine-American street map of DC.”

Exhibit Hours:

03/03/2019 9:00 AM – 03/31/2019 5:00 PM

Location: Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center

10209 Main Street

Fairfax, Virginia 22030