(Santiago, 05 December 2020) – As part of the Philippine Embassy in Chile’s (Santiago PE) continued engagement with the Filipino community and the ongoing 18-day campaign to end violence against women (VAW), the Embassy invited Filipino community women leaders in Santiago to a small gathering and celebration at the Chancery on 5 December 2020. The event was also held in line with Santiago PE’s gender and development (GAD) projects calendared for 2020, and in a limited scale due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols in place in Las Condes.

To commemorate the event, the Embassy printed out the “VAW-Free Community Starts with Me (#vasfreeph)” banner and distributed VAWFreePH facemasks for all participating community members and Embassy personnel. The same theme was similarly featured in all of Santiago PE’s social media accounts and official website. Extra facemasks were distributed to leaders for onward distribution to their respective community members.

In her remarks, Ambassador Ma. Teresita C. Daza emphasized the importance of women empowerment and its positive impact on economic development. She also highlighted the contributions of women in the overall labor force and, more importantly, their invaluable role in the household and inculcating positive values in children. She noted the marked increase in reports of violence against women during varying degrees of worldwide quarantine amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and underscored that such incidents should have no place in progressive societies and communities, especially the Philippines and Chile.

The 05 December activity also served as the Embassy’s farewell event for one of the its closest partners, Fr. Victoriano Molina Caritos, missionary priest of the Capilla Nstra. Señora del Carmen in Providencia, who will be leaving this month to continue his mission and advocacies in Vietnam. Fr. Molina officiated a thanksgiving mass for Embassy personnel, their family members and the community in the Chancery on the same day. The activity concluded with a luncheon for all attendees. END