Fil-Can frontliners tell stories of care giving

Fil-Can frontliners tell stories of care giving

Justin Abigail Yu (right), founder of Living Hyphen.
(Photos: Living Hyphen)

Virtual Writing Workshop

December 16, 2020

TORONTO– On the evening of Thursday, December 10, a small group of Filipino caregivers, nurses, personal support workers, and essential workers gathered online to share their experiences and stories of giving care during this time of pandemic specifically, but also in the diaspora, more generally. The North York Community House (NYCH), a multi-service agency serving the North York community and its newcomers, partnered with Living Hyphen, a community-based organization exploring the experiences of hyphenated Canadians, to deliver a virtual writing workshop specifically for Filipino frontline workers.

Earlier this year, NYCH was awarded funding from Metcalf Foundation to further research and community programming with Filipino caregivers and essential workers to capture their stories of how the workforce of care is changing as a result of the pandemic.

“This research surfaced as a response to the growing number of Filipino clients NYCH has been serving, especially Filipino women who have come to Canada as a part of the Live-in Caregiver Program and then their children once they arrived for family reunification.” said Jennifer Chan, NYCH’s Innovation & Experimentation Coach. “Through this funding, NYCH has focused on strengthening Filipino caregivers and essential workers’ ability and confidence to share their own stories as a form of self-care, healing, and advocacy,”

Over the course of two hours and through various writing prompts, storytelling activities, and deep conversation, this intimate group of frontline workers practiced writing down their stories and speaking them aloud.

“I had a great and creative time writing and exploring my experience and feelings about being a foreign-born caregiver amidst these challenging times,” said Donna Cooke, caregiver and workshop participant. “The honest, supportive, and sincere sharing was very inspiring and offered rare insight and encouragement – so typical of Filipina bonding and sisterhood that I miss and lost after moving abroad. We are all alike and different in our loneliness and struggles but a common underlying culture unites us in them.”

“This writing workshop allowed me to tap into a creative side I rarely get to exercise in my workplace as well as a student in STEM,” said Nina Obiar, pharmacy assistant and workshop participant. “As a result, I am now using creative writing as a part of my daily self-care routine.”

Past workshop of entrepreneurs hosted by Living Hyphen

The workshop was delivered in partnership with Living Hyphen whose founder, Justine Abigail Yu, is an award-winning writing workshop facilitator and active organizer in the Filipino-Canadian community.

“It was an honour to be able to host this writing workshop for my own kababayan, especially knowing how disproportionately affected Filipinos are as front liners in this deadly pandemic,” said Yu. “We’ve been hearing all of these stats of the Filipino essential workers who are risking their lives every day, but what about their stories? Beyond the numbers, we wanted to get to the heart of these experiences through real and rich storytelling – through kwentuhan, which is so important in the passing down of our histories!”

As the pandemic continues to rage on, NYCH and Living Hyphen aim to host another writing workshop in the early new year for Filipino frontline workers in the Greater Toronto Area. To learn more and stay updated on future workshops, follow them on Instagram at @nychonline and @livinghyphen.

(PRESS RELEASE)

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North York Community House is a multi-service agency founded in 1990. Situated in the North York community, NYCH serves the surrounding community and newcomers from across Toronto through programs and one-on-one services. www.nych.ca.

Living Hyphen is a community and magazine that explores what it means to live in between cultures as hyphenated Canadians – that is, anyone who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere. www.livinghyphen.ca.