In celebration of Women’s History Month, we are featuring Filipino women who are all making a difference in their families, communities and their workplace. They come from different backgrounds but each one of them is forging their path as an immigrant woman of colour in the UK.
Name: Averil Pooten-Watan
Describe your current work.
I have many roles and wear many hats! I am a mother of two girls, Penny and Eleanor and a wife to Mark. I am a churchwarden in St Barnabas Church, an Anglican Church in the Church of England. I am Chair of Waltham Forest Citizens and Waltham Forest Women’s Interfaith Network. Also, I am the Voluntary Community Sector (VCS) lead for the Waltham Forest Borough of Sanctuary Steering Committee. Finally, I am the chairperson of the Igorot UK Charity, an umbrella organisation of indigenous persons originally from the Cordillera region in the Philippines.
What is the maxim you live by?
I am a Christian, so my faith informs my life. I believe that Jesus Christ calls all of us – to love and to serve. I am also a community leader that believes in the power of community organising, so I live by ‘doing’ action to bring about change for the common good. To me, the action we take is the service Jesus calls us to do.
Love yourself! Stay true to who you are. Be proud of your Filipino roots and your culture. Channel the good intentions of your ancestors to forge your path. You have your voice; let it be heard with grace and power.
Tell us the biggest challenge that you faced and how you overcame it.
The biggest challenge I faced was surviving Covid-19 amidst the backdrop of the pandemic through managing a care home with a young family isolated at home while walking alongside those in our church family, i.e. the isolated elderly and providing access to the COVID-19 vaccine for those without immigration status. I was able to overcome this formidable challenge through my strong faith but also through the community organising work I was already engaged with before the pandemic. Before Covid-19, our church is part of Citizens UK. This community organising alliance empowers communities to seek collective change for the common good.
The power of relationships through Citizens UK meant students in local colleges made PPE face shields for our care home staff when we had none and the local NHS trust, together with the local authority council, expeditiously rolled our pop-up vaccination clinics to ensure our friends without immigration status had the Covid-19 vaccine without needing an NHS number or showing an ID. Also, we moved all church activity online and created prayer trees – using a conference call number – so that the elderly without access to the internet could remain in contact and continue attending midweek mass via the telephone. In contrast, the rest of the church used the internet. I’m very proud to say we did not lose anyone from our care home or church community to Covid-19.
What is the one achievement that you are most proud of and why?
Without question, my marriage to my husband, Mark. Without him, I would not be who I am now, blessed with two beautiful girls and confident that I am supported unequivocally in all the public and private hats I wear.
Secondly, last year, the moment we raised the Filipino flag for Philippine Independence Day for the first time in the Waltham Forest Town Hall. It was an incredible moment of pride. I felt that we Filipinos were seen and heard in the borough. To think that our parents, the first generation, who had migrated to the borough over 50 years ago, had never had their flag raised or been recognised publicly, as an ethnic group in the borough, in this way, and we were finally raising our flag, was huge. It meant, for me, that my daughters (third generation Igorots in the diaspora) could have Filipino pride and remember their roots.
What would be your advice to young Filipino girls of today?
Love yourself! Stay true to who you are. Be proud of your Filipino roots and your culture. Channel the good intentions of your ancestors to forge your path. You have your voice; let it be heard with grace and power.
