NEWS
Cen named Auburn
Woman of the Year
BERALA’S Cen Amores has been named 2018
Auburn Local Woman of the Year, following her
nomination by NSW State Opposition Leader and
MP for Auburn, Luke Foley.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the NSW Parliament honoured outstanding
women across the State with a Women of the Year Awards ceremony at the International
Convention Centre in Sydney on March 8, 2018.
Amores has been a community volunteer worker r in the Auburn
and western Sydney area for 25 years.
hilippine
She is the founding president of the Alliance of Philippine
0 Filipino-
Community Organisations Inc (APCO) an umbrella 40
s.
Australian voluntary and not-for-profit organisations.
Amores is also chairwoman of the Auburn Small l
Community Organisation Network Inc (ASCON), an umbrella
erse
organisation for 43 culturally and linguistically diverse
mberland local
community organisations operating within the Cumberland
government area.
n
More than 20 years ago, Cen and husband Ruben
ed
together with a number of Filipino couples responded
to the lack of affordable housing in Western Sydney
by setting up Kapit-bahayan Cooperative Ltd a
community housing cooperative for low to medium- -
income families from diverse cultural backgrounds.
This multi-awarded organisation now operates s
ns
five clusters of affordable housing accommodations
ps
in the Western Sydney and helps other ethnic groups
organise their own housing coops. n
www.kalatas.com.au
Town hall rally
A Filipino community
group in Sydney rallied in
front Sydney Town Hall at
2pm on Sunday, March 18,
2018 calling for peace and
justice in the Philippines.
The rally was organised by Migrante
Australia’s Movement Against Tyranny
with a view to drawing attention to
concerns about the present Philippine
Government direction and its impact on
the Filipino people, including Filipino
migrants.
Speakers from the International
Coalition for Human Rights in the
Philippines (ICHRP), Migrante Australia,
GABRIELA Australia (an alliance of Filipino
women’s organisations), Action for Peace
and Development in the Philippines
addressed the war on drugs, the alleged
war against the poor, the personal words
and actions of President Rodrigo Duterte,
and Australia’s support to the Duterte
Government.
The rally coincides with the 23rd
anniversary of Flor Contemplacion,
a domestic worker who was hanged
in Singapore in 1995 after admitting
to murdering a co-worker and their
employer’s child.
The rally alleged that the Philippine
Government showed continuing
neglect and lack of political will to stop
the exploitati on of its overseas foreign
workers. n
A rally leader, Lina Cabaero-Ponnambalam speaking
to the group in front of Sydney Town Hall. Photo: JADE CADELINA
AK NewsMagazine, Vol 8 No 7 | APRIL 2018
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