October 17, 2020

Ten months ago, none of us could have imagined we would be in the middle of a pandemic, a social justice movement and the election of our lifetime.

And more so, none of us could have imagined how much our community would be hit with an enemy we could not see — COVID19.

Filipinos have been disproportionately impacted by COVID19.

There are 4 million people of Filipino descent in the U.S. And 500,000 are hospital and health care workers — that’s 12.5% of our population. And 520,000 are seniors, which is 13%.

Together that’s over 25% who are vulnerable to COVID.

We kept asking ourselves the same question, “if we are so busy taking care of the world, who is taking care of us?”

How do we support our essential worker family members? How do we fight the proliferation of misinformation? How do we keeping going when we are experiencing multiple losses all at once?

As Filipinos, we struggled to address gaps created by distance due to COVID19.

How can we be together when we cannot be together?

We knew we had to answer the call to do something as COVID19 impacted every aspect of our lives and our family and friends.

In 24 weeks, we, as alums from the Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO) formed a COVID19 task force, brainstormed ideas, got funding and started development on a project we knew had the potential to change lives.

Twenty four weeks is not a lot of time but it is enough time to make an impact.

Thanks to an innovation grant from the Booz Allen Foundation, we are able to make the Caretaker Project a reality with today’s launch of our Tayo help desk.

We’re starting with a pilot in Los Angeles, with plans to expand to other cities across the nation as we raise more funding to keep going.

Filipinos at risk in pandemic will get help from new website (ABC7 Los Angeles)

I’ve never been more proud to be Filipino.

And launching during Filipino American History Month only makes this effort even more meaningful.

Being part of this project has only proven to me to double down in our Filipino-ness and bring out that part of ourselves that has made us the most innovative and resilient people in the world.

This project isn’t about the product — it’s about the people — for the people and powered by the people — Tayo.

It’s us.

We are its greatest innovation.

Join us.

Kababayan, we’re in this together.

Words cannot do it enough justice but I’m going to try — thank you to the following who made this a reality (Apologies in advance if I missed someone):

COVID19 taskforce:

Tiffany Batac (FYLPRO BOD)

Pia Besmonte

Mark Calaguas

Krystle Canare (FYLPRO BOD)

Fred Docdocil

Dexter Ligot Gordon

Donny Rojo (FYLPRO BOD)

Melissa Palma (FYLPRO BOD)

Josh Ang Price (FYLPRO BOD)

Ireneo Reus

TJ Simba-Medel (FYLPRO BOD)

Brian Tajo (FYLPRO BOD)

Jobel Vecino

Jiggy Villanueva

Kit Zulueta Furukawa

FYLPRO Board of Directors:

Louella Cabalona

Char McGinnis

Jen Coniflores

Sergio Alcubilla III

JP Ferrer

Tony Delarosa

Lakhi Siap

FYLPRO Alums:

Bea Rico

JR Calanoc

Anthony Guevara

Melissa Medina

Ryann Tanap

Cat Luib

Ray Villanueva

Antonio Moya

Marjorie Baltazar

Ryan Dalusag

EJ David

Kevin Zagala

Our Partners
AFI

DFA

Minority Psychology Network

Our entire COVID response network: https://fylpro.org/covidresponseteam/

With our fellows and expert reviewers coming on board soon, I cannot wait to see what we all do the next few months to help our community through this crisis.

We have more work ahead of us but I can’t think of a better community and team to push forward and innovate.

In Solidarity,

Leezel Tanglao

FYLPRO COVID19 Task Force Chair, Program Director and Spokesperson