21 April 2015 - The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah held a month-long series of activities in celebration of the 2015 National Women’s Month/International Women’s Day with the theme, “Juana Desisyon Mo ay Mahalaga sa Kinabukasan ng Bawat Isa, Ikaw Na.”
On March 01, Philippine Consul General Leo Tito L. Ausan, Jr. announced the list of activities for National Women’s Month. To herald the month-long celebration the Women’s Month poster from the Philippine Commission on Women was proudly displayed on the Consulate’s website and Facebook page on the same day.
The Consulate General’s personnel, as well as the women under the care of the Consulate’s Migrant Workers and Other Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC), were all active participants in the celebration of National Women’s Month. The women from MWOFRC were engaged to lead the flag-raising ceremony for the month. Aside from that, they and some overstaying overseas Filipino workers from the temporary shelter participated in a doll-making and poetry-writing contest with the month’s theme. Photos of the participants’ creations were displayed in the Consulate’s Facebook page.
On March 08, for International Women’s Day, Embassy personnel and staff from attached agencies wore violet ribbons on their left chests. The Consulate General’s Social Welfare Attache Josephine A. Arang also conducted a forum on the Magna Carta of Women (RA No. 9710) on March 18.
The culminating activity was on March 30. Philippine Consul General Leo Tito L. Ausan, Jr. gave an inspirational talk and Consul Germinia V. Aguilar-Usudan read the 2015 National Women’s Month Message of President Benigno S. Aquino III. Winners of the poetry-writing and doll-making contests were announced and given boxes of groceries courtesy of the event’s patrons and sponsors. A “Most-Liked Doll” based on online votes received a special prize. The first-prize poem titled “Juana, Dakilang Ina” by Aiza Acosta was read to the audience by Welfare Officer Maria Victoria G. Deminoy.
The month-long celebration concluded with a simple “salo-salo” of the Consulate General’s officers, staff including attached services, female and male wards and some Filipino community members. END