Community working together

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This article was published 12/12/2021 (1011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An online forum with tens of thousands of members has become a catalyst for social activism in the Filipino community.

With more than 52,000 members, 204 Filipino Forum and Marketplace is perhaps the largest online network of Filipino Manitobans, administrator and founding member Leila Castro said.

The page is a resource that connects its members with information, goods and community supports.

If a member needs food, emotional support, employment, advocacy or their car boosted during a snowstorm, they need only post and the Filipino community will answer the call, Castro said.

Castro boils the ethos of the group down to one word: bayanihan.

“(It means) helping together without expecting anything in return,” she said.

The network of initiatives connected to the online forum extends beyond the province. When calamity strikes at home or abroad, the Filipino community comes together, Castro said.

Castro said she has seen the group rally behind charitable causes and organize vigils or donation drives in the wake of tragedy countless times. In 2018, a plea for aid in search of a missing person mustered more than 200 people overnight, she said.

The page has inspired dozens of its members to form community groups of their own, including Castro, who also founded 204 Neighbourhood Watch, a street safety group that conducts weekly patrols in neighbourhoods across the city.

Similar groups — such as Wolseley Watch and St. James-Deerlodge Neighbourhood Watch — followed suit, Castro said.

Castro started the Filipino forum alongside five others in 2015. Since then, it has far exceeded the group’s expectations, becoming what she describes as a birthplace of positive community initiatives.

“We were also amazed at how fast it has grown,” Castro said. “I guess that people are seeing the beauty of it. People are feeling the impact, and they feel good…this group is pioneering a lot of good things, and (Filipinos) feel proud.”

At any given time, the forum promotes multiple fundraisers and events. Castro points to fellow member Shiela Redublo as a current example.

Redublo is the president of Sulat-Kamay Charity Inc., which provides poverty relief in Canada and the Philippines. She and a small network of volunteers are in the midst of a donation drive to create 215 kindness boxes for people experiencing homelessness.

Participants are collecting donations of winter wear, hygiene products, snacks and gift cards and packaging them together. Redublo, her family, and volunteers will take to the streets of Winnipeg and distribute the gifts on Christmas Day.

Redublo, who grew up in the Philippines, understands hardship and the profound effect of an act of compassion, she said.

“It’s very personal for me, what I do, because I have felt the benefits and the impact of being in a Canadian culture,” Redublo said, holding back tears. “That’s the reason we do this. Because we try to make an impact.”

This Christmas will mark the second consecutive year Redublo has given out kindness boxes. She is determined to make it an annual tradition, she said.

“There will always be an excuse not to give because you will always have a need,” she said. “The real essence of blessing people is not only blessing people that have blessed you… the actual gift is providing help to the people who will never be able to return something to you.”

People who want to contribute to the kindness boxes can drop off donations at the Tim Hortons on Brookside Boulevard or at Auto Gallery of Winnipeg.

For her part, Castro has opted to give a different kind of gift this holiday season.

In honour of her 50th birthday on Dec. 12, she asked her friends and community to donate blood to Canadian Blood Services. She hopes to provide blood from 50 donors — one for every year of her life, she said.

In November, Castro and 38 others donated blood for the cause. Of the donors, 34 were Filipino, she said.

She already has the final 12 donors lined up and hopes to have all 50 completed before the end of January.

Castro credits the 204 forum and the Filipino belief in bayanihan for making it possible.

“It’s a simple concept, but it’s quite impactful. (It) cuts across whatever is the need of the community and that desire to do something positive. Not just for fellow Filipinos but for the multicultural community… that is bayanihan,” she said.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca