The Association of Pinoy Students in Australia [APSA] was formed in 2014 by Vida Aquino Fernandez and few other students for the purpose of providing support to Filipinos who have come on Student Visa to pursue studies in Australia with the long term goal of settling here.
In an interview with Radio Tagumpay* on April 20, 2020, Vida shared:
"In addition to providing care and support to our members needing help along the way, APSA has also given back to the community in the way it can. We have volunteered in the two-day Philippine Pasko Festival in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour fo the four consecutive years it was held and more recently as part of the "Sing for Hope" bushfire appeal concert undertaken by FILSPARC.
With the recent COVID-19 control measures being implemented by the government, the students lost their part time employment. APSA has extended help through the initiatives of Feed A Student Program. Students were encouraged to register for assistance through the APSA Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/APSA.Australia/.
In terms of distributing the food packages, Vida shared: "The first two batches of 50 were distributed in Edgecliff, with the third batch to be given out in Blacktown. We would like to comply with the social distancing requirement and we're trying to avoid yung nagku-kumpol-kumpol ang mga students."
To augment donations to cover the cost of the food packages pledged through their FB page, APSA is now joining forces with one of the major productions group in Sydney, the MENM Productions headed by Len Puzon to hold a fund raising home concert on May 1, 2020, Philippine Labour Day.
When asked how the collaboration came about, Len said: "Vida Aquino Fernandez and APSA came with the idea of at home concert and she asked me to help her organise.
"We hope to raise funds for the benefit of Filipino Australian International students who are in financial difficulties due to sudden loss of job. Performers will entertain the audience and would ask for donation - any amount either as pledge on private message or through goFundMe account established by APSA.
"MENM also would like to re-connect to audiences since most of our performers have shows/gigs that were either postponed or cancelled. Just to remind the audience to support the performers when we go back to normality. Initially I private messaged MENM’s regular performers and those that we have worked with and invited them and they agreed to perform. Some artists volunteered upon seeing the video teaser."
APSA and MENM Productions are inviting everyone to support Laban Kabayan At Home Concert for the Benefit of Filipino International Students in Australia on Friday, May 1 - Labor Day starting at 5pm to be broadcasted live via FB page of MENM Productions.
The artists who are donating their talent and time, to perform live for the benefit of International Filipino Students are listed below:
Ferdinand Adion
Brian Anderson
Jared Eathan Dalisay
Sophie Dalisay
Ronnie Dandan
Gina Fernandez
Eric G. Viva Artist
Criz Guce
Myla Jones
Michael Jumawan
Jojo Sebastian
Ross Vinculado
Trinity Young
The home concert will be hosted by : Sheila Cantero Raptis and Marc Baylon
Mechanics of the Home Concert
At the start of the broadcast of Laban Kabayan At Home Concert for the benefit of Filipino International Students in Australia, at around 5pm - emcees Sheila and Marc will welcome the performers and the viewers. APSA President Vida Aquino Fernandez will be introduced to speak for two minutes.
Then the GoFundMe link and APSA’s nominated account for donation will be posted. Emcees will mention that people also can make a pledge from as little as $1 via PM on MENM FB page, APSA FB page and each performers FB account.
All pledges will be tallied before the end of concert and the total amount will be announced and subsequently will be collected.
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*Radio Tagumpay airs on Mondays, 2-4pm at Triple H 100.1FM and can be streamed via:
https://www.triplehfm.com.au/