Major Milestone: Ramar Foods Produces 1 Billionth Lumpia!

Major Milestone: Ramar Foods Produces 1 Billionth Lumpia!

Ramar Foods is a third generation Filipino-American family business that has produced well-loved Filipino food staples for over thirty years. Ramar Foods was founded by Ramon and Maria Quesada (pictured) in 1969 after they immigrated to the U.S. with their 11 children. Eager to bring the taste of home to America, the Quesada family transformed the company from import and distribution to a full-fledged food manufacturing business, bringing the taste of the Philippines to the U.S. palette. Last week, Ramar Foods celebrated an outstanding milestone of producing its one billionth lumpia in its headquarters in Pittsburg, California.  News story from CBS San Francisco. Link to the video after the jump.

Philippine Senator Loren Lagarda Named Global Champion for Resilience by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Philippine Senator Loren Lagarda Named Global Champion for Resilience by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Philippine Senator Loren Legarda has been named the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNISDR) Global Champion for Resilience. Legarda’s appointment was announced by Margareta Wahlstrom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, on November 30 at the Climate Vulnerable Forum High Level Meeting at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference or COP21. The senator, a regional champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific since 2008, was recognized for being “an outspoken and consistent champion for the need to rethink development and work with all stakeholders and in many sectors to prevent and reduce risk,” Wahlstrom said in a speech delivered at the Paris conference. News story from Inquirer.net.

THANK YOU to Our #GivingTuesday Donors- Your Contributions Support Impact Projects Empowering Filipina Women!

THANK YOU to Our #GivingTuesday Donors- Your Contributions Support Impact Projects Empowering Filipina Women!

Thank you to our kind and generous donors. This is the first year Filipina Women's Network joined #GivingTuesday, the social media-powered global day of giving. With your help, we raised $2,994.00 over the course of 8 hours! 

Giving Tuesday is a charitable initiative that serves as a counter-effort to big holiday-fueled spending days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Largely fueled by social media, Giving Tuesday is an annual day to encourage the global public to give back to one's favorite charity or non-profit organization, through volunteering or financial contributions. In its fourth year, #GivingTuesday 2015 had 1.3 million mentions on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram, compared with 750,000 from last year. It raised nearly $117 million in online donations, a jump of 155% over last year. Source: NBCNews.com

Trafficked Filipino Teachers Win $4.5 Million Lawsuit Over LA-based Recruitment Company

Trafficked Filipino Teachers Win $4.5 Million Lawsuit Over LA-based Recruitment Company

Excerpt: A U.S. appeals court Monday, December 1 upheld a jury’s $4.5 million award to a class of roughly 350 Filipino teachers who accused recruitment companies of demanding they pay massive processing and placement fees or face losing their jobs in Louisiana. A class of 347 Filipino teachers, who came to the United States to work on H-1B guest worker visas, said recruitment agencies and their agents misled them and collected millions of dollars in fees, according to Courthouse News Service. They reportedly paid up to $16,000 each to work in public schools in Louisiana. News story from Inquirer.net.

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U.S. Marine Scott Pemberton Found Guilty for Killing Jennifer Laude

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U.S. Marine Scott Pemberton Found Guilty for Killing Jennifer Laude

A Philippine court has found Scott Pemberton guilty of killing Filipina transgender woman Jennifer Laude. Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude in a hotel room in Olongapo city, north-west of Manila, last year. The marine was on leave in Olongapo on 11 October 2014, after joint military exercises with the Philippine army, when he met Ms. Laude in a bar. Police said they left together and checked into a hotel, where she was found dead the next day, apparently strangled and with her head inside the hotel toilet. Pemberton will face between six and 12 years imprisonment. News story courtesy of BBC.com.

 

Bay Area Artists! Apply for the Artist-in-Residence Program in Hunter's Point/Bayview. Deadline: December 14

Bay Area Artists! Apply for the Artist-in-Residence Program in Hunter's Point/Bayview. Deadline: December 14

This is a call for artists of all visual or cross-disciplinary media  for an 18-month long artist studio residency. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and must work, live, or are involved or have a personal history with the Bayview/Hunters Point Community. The artist residency will take place from January 2016-May 2017. To apply or learn more, visit http://www.shipyardtrust.org/artist-in-residence-program/

Entrepreneur Myrna T. Yao (Global FWN100™ '15) Shares Her Global Vision of Women in Business in Exclusive ABS-CBN Interview

Entrepreneur Myrna T. Yao (Global FWN100™ '15) Shares Her Global Vision of Women in Business in Exclusive ABS-CBN Interview

Myrna T. Yao, CEO of Richprime Global Inc. (Global FWN™ '15) got her first entrepreneurial start at her family's sari-sari store and selling accessories to her classmates in Bicol.  She now heads Richwell Trading,  a leader in distribution and retail of branded consumer goods in the Philippines. Yao was recently interviewed by ABS-CBN where she shared meaningful insight on micro-entrepreneurship as the chairperson of the Philippine Commission on Women. In support of women's entrepreneurship, Yao shared, “if you have an idea, don’t wait, and if you’re afraid to make mistakes, mistakes will make you learn and will make you grow. So any problem that comes, you just have to face it and then you will learn from it and you will grow from it. And then you will be a better person and a better entrepreneur." Watch the video interview after the jump.

Ramona Diaz, The Visionary Behind 'Imelda' and 'Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey' on Global FWN100™ '15 Award

Ramona Diaz, The Visionary Behind 'Imelda' and 'Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey' on Global FWN100™ '15 Award

PhilStar's Joanne Rae M. Ramirez pays congratulations to filmmaker Ramona Diaz on her Global FWN™ '15 award. "It is a much deserved accolade for Diaz, whose film Imelda, a full-length documentary about the former First Lady of the Philippines, garnered the Excellence in Cinematography Award for documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the ABCNews VideoSource Award from the IDA. In an interview with FWN, Diaz said she makes films about “the Filipino experience for a global audience. We are often represented as minor characters, even in our own narratives. We seldom see ourselves represented on the screen in a lead role." News story from PhilStar.