We have known Qara since 2006 when she joined the community-based research project of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) – a multi-year project that focused on processes and challenges of settlement and integration of Filipinos in Canada. It was through this project and as member of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-O), Philippine Centre of BC (PWC-BC) and Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (FCYA) that Qara began her productive journey and life-long commitment into the affairs of the Filipino-Canadian community.
Through these various community organizations, Qara became a community organizer. She was actively engaged in the education and mobilization of the community relating to various issues such as globalization, immigration, anti-racism, women empowerment, youth activism and enhancement economic opportunities for Filipino-Canadian women, youth and workers. She researched and wrote on numerous social and political topics proving her intellectual and academic abilities in understanding them in the context of and beyond the Filipino-Canadian community. Among her accomplishments was her direct and active participation in our community-based project “Making the Filipino Youth Count in Canada’s Future” that included conceptualization, research and capacity-building programs for the Filipino-Canadian youth. Through this project, new members were encouraged to join the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance, Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and Philippine Women Centre of BC – all under the umbrella of the Congress of Progressive Filipinos in Canada (CPFC). Qara had also facilitated various community workshops and focus groups that dealt on the roots of women oppression and the intersectionality of class, gender and race; and on anti-racism education project aimed at combatting systemic racism and other issues facing the Filipino Canadian youth.
When Qara moved to Vancouver, she continued to be an active student and critique of important social policies such as the Live-in Caregiver Program, privatization of health care, universal childcare, and national housing program. Over the years that we had worked with and observed her, Qara had proven herself capable and effective in the tasks that were assigned to her and those which she volunteered for.
Qara was among those women who possessed the intellectual and practical competence to succeed in pursuing academic-related endeavors. In her last communication with us last October 24th, Qara indicated that she was going into a diploma program to study the “civic engagement of precarious workers in Vancouver” which would dovetail with her experience as community organizer and political activist.
For us at the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada and Congress of Progressive Filipinos in Canada (CPFC), Qara is both a comrade and personal friend. Every time we visited Vancouver, we would share with her many moments of our lives as we celebrate our personal and collective struggles together. She was firm in her ideological and political perspectives and her passing away does not deter her continuing struggle for humanity and social justice. She was and continued to be a revolutionary to the end. Indeed, she has earned her place in the hearts and memory of members of the progressive Filipino-Canadian community especially those at the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, Philippine Women Centre of BC, Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance.
Even as we mourn for Qara, we will turn this sorrow and sadness into continuing struggle and revolutionary courage to fight against inequality, injustice and for a better tomorrow – advocacy issues that Qara had joined and fought for.
We will miss Qara but we will not forget her.
On Behalf of:
National Alliance of Philppine Women in Canada NAPWC) – Cecilia Diocson
Congress of Progressive Filipinos in Canada (CPFC) – Emmanuel Sayo
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