The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) is an umbrella organization of various organizations throughout Canada.

It was born out of the national consultation of Filipina women in 1999 in Vancouver, B.C. Among its mandate and general objectives are as follows:

1. To advance the struggle of Filipinos in Canada, particularly among the women, for equality, peace and genuine development.



2. To develop national programs that would enhance the community's full participation in the civic, social and political life of Canada.


3. To conduct community based studies and researches of the Filipino community that would help empower and develop capacity building skills in the community.


4. To help strengthen member organizations capabilities in community organizing, research, education and mobilization.

Filipinos comprise the fourth largest immigrant group in Canada located mainly in Canada's major cities and suburbs of Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. They are among the highest and most educated of immigrants but also among those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. Most are women (around 65% of all Filipinos in Canada) who have come under the Live-in-Caregiver Program (LCP) which suggests an increasing feminization of migration among Filipinos. The combined status as immigrants and people of colour has been a major factor in their consignment to occupationally segregated and low wage sectors of the economy. This in turn, has had a serious negative impact in their civic participation and is causing fractures in what researchers described as "intra-community relations and community-shared imaginations."

While there are attempts to enhance participation, these are mostly done at local levels and are not effective enough to ensure empowerment both at community and individual levels. Academic studies and some of our own community-based participatory action research (PAR) have identified the issue of full and active participation to be a major concern in the community. The number of local community education and organizing, does not necessarily address the concerns of the community on a national scale especially in terms of integration, socialization and full participation in Canadian society. Optimal use of human capital for full participation in Canadian society is still lacking in the community.

Hence, despite these attempts at local levels to enhance participation and involvement, the community as a whole, tends to be ghettoized thus further marginalizing it from mainstream Canadian society.