‘I'm Here Today Because I'm Filipino’
"I'm here today because I'm Filipino"
About a week ago, I had the opportunity to present at 2025 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media presented by National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) and Public Health Communications Collaborative in Atlanta. This was the first time FYLPRO's Tayo team presented at this conference along with our partners from the Council of Young Filipinx Americans in Medicine (CYFAM).
Our session, "Magusap Usap Tayo: Public Health Communications for Filipino American Communities" was moderated by Dr. Melissa Palma, MD, MPH (Tayo cofounder and medical advisor and FYLPRO 2018 delegate). The session featured talks:
-"Discernment Out of Disorder: Information Literacy Interventions in Diaspora Communities" by Mark Calaguas (Tayo cofounder and legal counsel and FYLPRO 2016 delegate) and I
-"Kain na Tayo: Culturally Tailored Multimedia Heart Healthy Nutrition Education for Filipino Americans" by Tano Nguyen (Tayo research team)
-"CYFAM Evening Report - An Intergenerational, Educational Intervention Built Upon Cultural Psychology, Structural Competency, and Self-Determination Theory" by Dr. Ashlee Joan Macalino, MD
-"Assessing Collective Efficacy and Participant Variation in Community Health Education: A Pilot Study of the SINABE Tool" by Dr. Angelico Razon MD MPH MSHP FAAP (Tayo reviewer and FYLPRO 2022 delegate)
While this isn't the first time Tayo has presented at a public health related conferences, it is still gratifying to see our session next to other topics on health communications and be unapologetically be Filipino.
Our session was in the last block on day 2 so already we were unsure who would attend. However, it's not packing the room, rather it's filling it with the people who wanted to be there.
As per our usual whenever Tayo presents, we literally wear our culture on our sleeves and hearts - decked out in barongs and filipinana. I started wearing my filipinana a few years ago to all my conferences not because it's fashionable but also serves as conversation starter and bat signal to all other kababayans in the space. (Hi Michael Dumlao!) This conference was no exception and only added to the meaningful conversation.
About a dozen people should up - most were Filipino and some were not. Because of the intimate crowd, Dr. Palma asked the audience to introduce themselves and answer "What brings you here today and what ties you have with the Filipino community?"
It was great hear from folks like Dallas Ellsworth and Hugo Perez who are in communities that are not predominantly Filipino but wanted to learn from us.
What was most striking is what every single one of our fellow kababayans who attended the session said:
"I'm here today because I'm Filipino"
These are 6 words hit me hard and served as a reminder of why we continue to do this work.
All the attendees thanked us for the session and that it made their day.
It made our day too.
So don't be afraid to take the space and show up.