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Reported by Cheryl G. Sevegan (Israel correspondent) through Marison Rodriguez (Czech Republic) As written by Gene Alcantara (UK), Chairperson
The European Network of Filipino Diaspora (ENFiD) announced that it is holding its first Annual General Assembly and a Mini-Conference in Madrid, Spain from 11-13 July 2014 at the Hotel Barcelo Castellana Norte, Madrid, Spain.
The mini-conference is organized to increase and deepen understanding of relevant topics affecting the (im)migrant Filipinos and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) such as consular protection and overseas voting. Moreover, the mini-conference is a venue to determine the issues where ENFiD may have a pivotal role and correspondingly, draft recommendations on these for consideration at the ENFiD General Assembly. The guests and speakers include H.E. Carlos Salinas – Philippine Ambassador to Spain, Alcadesa Ana Maria Botella Serrano of the City of Madrid, Dr. Juan E. Dayang Jr., Consul General at the Philippine Embassy in Czech Republic, Ms. Maria Jesus, International Organization for Migration, Sr. D. Gonzalo Ortiz Lazaro, Director General, Immigracion Consejeria de Asuntos Sociales de Madrid and Fr. José Luis Pinilla, Director del Secretariado de la Comisión Episcopal de Migraciones Conferencia Episcopal Española.
At the General Assembly (GA), ENFiD will identify the themes to pursue at Euro-region and will formulate a Five-year Strategy Plan and an Annual Action Plan. Also, new Board Members will be elected and its membership will be formalized. Moreover, at the GA, networking among Filipino organizations will be strengthened and best practices on life-long learning, and integration of Filipinos in their host countries will be shared.
ENFiD is an active international networking association that propagates the sense of Filipino “nationhood” away from the home country. ENFiD also inculcates a strong sense of shared destiny and aspirations and acts as a catalyst in promoting resolutions to issues and arising problems among Filipinos in Europe. It is registered as a non-profit organization in the Commission on Voluntary Organizations (CVO) in Malta in January 2014 and in the EU Transparency Registry in May 2014. It was born out of the Diaspora 2 Dialogue (D2D) Conference in Rome in September 2012 organized by the Philippine Embassy in Italy with the support of various communities, local government, NGOs, international bodies such as the Global Filipino Diaspora Council (GFDC) and the Philippine government including the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO). As there is a need for European voices to be united and heard, and indeed for European Filipinos to participate in nation-building in ways more than just through their remittances as well as to integrate in their host countries, the over 200 participants responded positively with a Rome Declaration and the formation of the network initially of 14 countries.
In January 2013, ENFiD was formally organized with a meeting held in Malta by Ad-Hoc Representatives of it country members. The meeting drafted the Constitution and By-Laws, elected the first set of Board of Directors and appointed an Executive Director. Now, the network is slowly but surely getting into contact with Filipino organizations across Europe, and it has 17 countries among its organizational membership which include Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, UK, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. The journey no doubt is going to be long and arduous, but ENFiD hopes to reach more countries in Europe in its membership. It is estimated that there are about 800,000 Filipinos living in the European continent.
ENFiD operates a website and a Facebook group (currently with 1,900 members) to communicate with the members and its constituents in Europe, and as a repository of its activities, meeting reports and other documents.
For further information, please visit http://enfid.org or email contact@enfid.org
