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About Stichting Habagat |
Brief Background
In 1993, amidst the confusion and split of the broad left movement in the Philippines, a group of friends, who mostly originated from Mindanao, decided to continue their community organizing work and support for the people’s organizations back home. While many if not all of the politically active Filipinos in the Netherlands were trying to find their places in the then new situation, this group of Filipinos thought of doing something concrete, even experimenting and testing their ideas in the Netherlands.
These Mindanawons started on a premise that there was the need to organize themselves and the Filipinos in the Netherlands. They agreed to especially reach those who were already active but who shied away from the political deliberations of the left movement. Secondly, they felt it was time to initiate fun-activities to facilitate the launching of a network of Visayan-speaking Filipinos. Picnic and Bayle were among the favorites. Last but not least, it was decided to put up a foundation for its fund-raising efforts so that it would be able to support initiatives in the Philippines. An initial project called “Amot-Eskwela” was designed to raise money in order to send Filipino children to school.
The original small group met on May 16, 1993 sealing their commitment and initial plans.
This group which was politically active in the Philippines since the 1980s or even earlier, have also been deeply involved in Filipino organizations in the Netherlands as well as in solidarity work for the Philippines in general.
These Mindanawons envisioned a foundation which would identify with the interests of the peoples living in the South. It specifically aims to promote and generate support for issues and concerns of the people in the southern Philippines through campaigns and information drives. Thus, the area defined was Habagatan. Habagat became finally its choice for the foundation’s name.
This meant, that Stichting Habagat’s immediate thrust was two-fold: to identify and/or reestablish network in the Visayas and Mindanao; and to strengthen and develop further the solidarity linkages in the Netherlands and other countries from the South.
Due to the group’s involvement with Filipino community affairs, it is only logical to say that the later development of Stichting Habagat has been intertwined with the general development of Filipino migrant work in the Netherlands.
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