GREETINGS FROM THE PHILIPPINES! I don’t know when I last wrote to you so it must have been quite a time. In our last evaluation meeting, I was reminded that I should write another Circular Letter
— so here goes.
NEW PROGRAM: NUNSENSE MAKES SENSE!
Since February 6, we have started a weekly TV talk show entitled NUN-SENSE, MAKES SENSE with yours truly as host. I was invited by GNN, Destiny Cable to this T.V. series. It all started casually when I was interviewed on this channel by the Director of the Public Service Section of the network. While watching a show, I commented,“Oh, you have a T.V. show on the urban poor. Do you have on women?” He answered, “None, would you want to host one?” I said, “Sure!” He said, “I am serious.” I answered, “I am serious, too.” So he called an assistant and we decided that the Mass Com studio and students of St. Scholastica’s College would produce the show in tandem with the Institute of Women’s Studies. We have aired at least 28 shows! Our topics include: The Beginning of the Women’s Movement in the Philippines, Beauty Queens Turned Feminists, Women in Politics, Women and Religion. Women and Spirituality, Women in Non-Traditional Jobs, Migrant Women, Women Entrepreneurs, Women Workers, Images of Women in Media, Women and Environment, etc.
businesswomen, actors, artists.
We are selling the CD’s of our show — five hundred pesos per
pack of 10 episodes. The next pages will be contributions from Tatis, Aida and Itty.
Lovingly yours,
Sr. Mary John, OSB
TRAININGS (Contributed by Tatis)
For several years now, training has remained the core program of the Institute. The IWS has remained steadfast in its course offerings. We still offer both long courses like the ICWS and Trainer’s Training in Feminism and Education Work with Women and our short courses like Women and Ecology, Women and Spirituality, Gender Fair Education, Women as Leaders. For this year, from February till June, we have done one each of our short courses namely WET,WAL and WS and just this July19 to August 6 , the Trainer’s Training on Feminism and Education Work with Women was done. The experiences and stories that the women have shared during each of these trainings made us cry, laugh and marvel at how strong, vulnerable and patient women are. The power of these trainings lie in the use of images and metaphors, the overarching realization that of women as midwives, assisting each one to give birth to the new things in their life and expelling the negative. In each training women shared their common concerns and hope and uncover new visions. Aside from these trainings, a new thing happened to IWS, last April 28 to May 3, the first Trainers’ training on Education Work with Men was done. It was attended by former GSM 1 graduates, 14 men coming from the different regions. It was a 7-day program that focused on additional inputs on feminism, sexuality, spirituality and skills on how to impart these learning to other men, that was done in Mendez, Cavite. Through the tears and laughter, the pain and struggles, their participants came together, ready to weave yet another journey.
NURSIA HAPPENINGS (contributed by Aida)
During the celebration of the International Women’s Day, the Institute in coordination with the Department of Women’s Studies of St. Scholastica’s College sponsored a seminar on Violence Against Women with Judge Zenaida Elipanio and Ms. Terret Balayon of Women Crisis Center. A special guest also joined the discussion by narrating her story as a VAW victim. The Institute will be conducting another seminar focusing on the Magna Carta for Women by mid-October with the women legislators who sponsored the bill as guests. Since last year, the Institute has already conducted 2 Integrated Healing Workshops which was conducted by Dr. Noel Resella. A repeat of the said successful workshops will be scheduled before the year ends. Other activities to be conducted by the Institute will be skills training courses like Meat Processing and Healthy Cooking. I am full of pride to share with our friends that the IWS staff has agreed to forego their annual outing (rest and recreation) and instead donate the allocated fund to one of our former staff who is diagnosed with Breast Cancer 3A. Aside from this good deed, the Institute is now conducting a fund raising campaign by selling rosaries made from fresh-water pearls. Should you be interested to help, please call or email us at iwsmnl@yahoo.com. Keeping abreast with the modern information technology, the Institute now has a facebook account. Schedule of trainings and of our TV program can now be easily accessed through this account. Facilities of both resource centers are also featured.
MENDEZ FARM EVENTS (CONTRIBUTED BY Itty)
It is now the season of santol, and the farm is once again a huge stage for dancing butterflies in all sizes and colors, flitting from one santol that dropped to the ground to another, as they suck the tender but sharp juice off the fruit. In the butterfly garden where we have planted the plants butterflies need for food and laying their eggs, at any time there are twenty to thirty of these fascinating, delicate creatures, even though we have removed the protective net cover overhead and maintained only the net wall as protection against our neighbors’ stray dogs. The large brown native butterfly called the Mariposa is on the window screens and of course, in the ilang-ilang trees they have reclaimed for the meantime. Our winged friends will be constant, visible companions for a few more weeks, before the cold winds of the coming “-ber” months drive them away.
Unfortunately, we lost an avocado tree to the typhoon Basyang, as well as much of our vegetables. But with grit, when the weather tamed, we cleared more of the cultivable area of the farm in our resolve to replace our loss. So, now there are string beans and snap beans and radiant violent eggplant. The summer heat siphoned the ponds of oxygen (due to excessive algae growth), but the rains are slowly rehabilitating them. In the morning we see twenty-some koi fingerlings, about three inches long, floating just below the water skim. We also have at least thirty of the bigger koi (at least eight inches long), besides the numerous small ones. Yes, we are eyeing to supply koi- aquarium keepers soon. In recent months, besides our own training, other women’s groups based in Manila, as well as development and environment organizations, have used the farm for their learning activities. One noon, four carloads of religious sisters from different congregations also dropped by a quick tour of the farm within their lunch break. But the specialty of the house – lemongrass tea – as well as freshly harvested native (white) corn bought from the neighbor distracted many of them
from the original plan, and there they sat in the refectory chatting while enjoying an unscheduled snack! By the end of August we look forward to some very special returning clients – the kindergarten and preparatory tots of St. Gregory Parochial School of Indang parish. The last time we hosted these children, they had plenty of things to say about the spaghetti and fried chicken we served. “Spaghetti is my favorite,” the kitchen staff would hear from at least five or six children in a single morning. Because the driveway was rain-drenched, we needed to carry some of these children out to the street where their schoolbus was parked when it was time to go home – in threes or fours, because this was as many children as the umbrellas could cover. The farm staff was soaking wet by the time the last child had boarded the bus but they enjoyed waiting on these children immensely.
Unfortunately, we lost an avocado tree to the typhoon Basyang, as well as much of our vegetables. But with grit, when the weather tamed, we cleared more of the cultivable area of the farm in our resolve to replace our loss. So, now there are string beans and snap beans and radiant violent eggplant. The summer heat siphoned the ponds of oxygen (due to excessive algae growth), but the rains are slowly rehabilitating them. In the morning we see twenty-some koi fingerlings, about three inches long, floating just below the water skim. We also have at least thirty of the bigger koi (at least eight inches long), besides the numerous small ones. Yes, we are eyeing to supply koi- aquarium keepers soon. In recent months, besides our own training, other women’s groups based in Manila, as well as development and environment organizations, have used the farm for their learning activities. One noon, four carloads of religious sisters from different congregations also dropped by a quick tour of the farm within their lunch break. But the specialty of the house – lemongrass tea – as well as freshly harvested native (white) corn bought from the neighbor distracted many of them
from the original plan, and there they sat in the refectory chatting while enjoying an unscheduled snack! By the end of August we look forward to some very special returning clients – the kindergarten and preparatory tots of St. Gregory Parochial School of Indang parish. The last time we hosted these children, they had plenty of things to say about the spaghetti and fried chicken we served. “Spaghetti is my favorite,” the kitchen staff would hear from at least five or six children in a single morning. Because the driveway was rain-drenched, we needed to carry some of these children out to the street where their schoolbus was parked when it was time to go home – in threes or fours, because this was as many children as the umbrellas could cover. The farm staff was soaking wet by the time the last child had boarded the bus but they enjoyed waiting on these children immensely.
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| The participants and facilitators of the Gender Studies for Men Trainers’ Training. (May — June 2010) |
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| The participants of the Self-Integrated Workshop. (Feb. to March 2010) |
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| Our winged friends from the farm feasting on the santan and lantana in the butterfly gar- den (top right, top left and bottom right); a small white one resting against the net of the garden foyer (bottom right) |
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| The participants of the recently concluded Trainers’ Training on Feminism and Education Work with Women |
