Last updated on :
January 30, 2012

Some of the projects and activities of Bayanihan are supported by:

Commissie PIN

Philippine Women’s Center in the Netherlands

PART II: her story (May article)

A corporate identity –

Dutch and people of other nationalities would usually ask, “So what is that house and what are those people doing?” This would be followed or preceded by “What does ‘BA-YA-NI-HAN’ mean?” Bayanihan’s logo, although obvious and self-explanatory to Filipinos, is not so for non-Filipinos. It is, of course, a picture of a ‘bayanihan’ taking place: an old (most probably no longer existent) practice back home when people in the village helped literally move the house of another by carrying it to another place or spot in the village.
       For the founders of Bayanihan, this very idea of cooperation, of helping one another by distributing the burden of a heavy load on many shoulders thus making it lighter for everyone involved, is the very essence of the organization’s mission and objectives. The worries and problems of the Filipina living in a foreign society is made lighter by sharing them with other women.
       The designer of the original logo, South Holland renowned artist Annette Pels, realized the idea of women-helping-women through the “bayanihan” image by making the carriers or bearers of the load women. For the next 15 years, this image will not change; it will become – and remains so to this day - Bayanihan’s symbol.

Any place in the world, a rose by any other name…

Apart from the movement and changes in the individuals promoting Bayanihan’s interests, several other significant changes took place as part and parcel of her metamorphosis from a “baby” organization to the “teen-ager” which she is right now. One change is her name. From Stichting Welzijn Filipinos in Nederland: Bayanihan, she was “re-baptized” to Bayanihan: Steunpunt Filippijnse Vrouwen in Nederland. This happened in 1995, coinciding with another significant change: the acquisition of a regular office space at the then Multicultureel Emancipatie Centrum (MEC) in Utrecht. Thanks in part to a subsidy by the Utrecht municipality, Bayanihan became one of the migrant women organizations occupying Wittevrouwenkade 6, until May 2005.

This physical move was definitely an improvement along with other things. The former office space (since 1993) at the Vrouwenhuis in Twijnstraat 69, although rental free, was becoming too small for the needs of the organization. By this time, Bayanihan had two salaried staff members working part-time (still with the support of a working Board and the Council of Volunteers) who were responsible for not only the administrative part of the work but also for the design and implementation of the programmes.

Bayanihan Foundation
 Netherlands
Mob. Tel. +31 (0)6 - 22 94 77 59
E-mail: info@bayanihan.nl

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