PH Embassy in Brussels Launches Women-Helping-Women Network
Deputy Chief of Mission and Consul General Maria Anna Lilia de Vera, Embassy focal point for Gender and Development, explains the concept of the Women Helping Women (WHW) Network to the audience during the launch of the WHW Network at the Philippine Embassy in Brussels on 15 March 2019. (Brussels PE photo)
BRUSSELS 25 March 2019 – In celebration of International Women’s Day and Philippine National Women’s Month, the Philippine Embassy in Brussels formally launched the Women-Helping-Women (WHW) Network in a ceremony at the Embassy premises on 15 March 2019.
The WHW Network, part of the Embassy’s gender and development (GAD) initiatives, is the result of year-long consultations with the Filipino community on how to better provide support to Filipinos in Belgium, most of whom are women, who are in distress or in need of assistance.
Deputy Chief of Mission and Consul General Maria Anna Lilia de Vera, the Embassy’s GAD focal point, explained that the Network is envisioned to bring together volunteers from both the Filipino community and the wider Belgian society, who can provide the necessary information and expertise to Filipinos needing urgent consular and other assistance.
The Network will also expand into the Embassy’s concurrent jurisdiction of Luxembourg.
To solemnize the occasion, Ambassador to Belgium Eduardo José A. de Vega led the symbolic pledge of WHW Network volunteers to ensure timely and gender-sensitive intervention for persons in need of assistance and to champion gender parity by taking purposeful action in upholding women’s rights and welfare.
In addition to Assistance-to-Nationals cases, the WHW Network will also be tapped to come up with other projects to further promote GAD such as financial literacy seminars and collaborations with other like-minded organizations and government agencies. END
Ambassador to Belgium Eduardo José A. de Vega (seated, center) with volunteers of the Women Helping Women Network during its launch on 15 March 2019 at the Philippine Embassy in Brussels. (Brussels PE photo)
For more information, visit www.brusselspe.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinBelgium/.