As we celebrate women's month, we highlight the empowerment of women and how we contribute to our community’s development. Let me tell you about the beginning of our organization and the effects it has had on our everyday lives.
The Out and Proud League of Colors organization is a group of well-adjusted young people whose mission is to encourage people in our community to live freely, acceptingly, and proudly, and help them with their personality development. Our main goal is to represent the rainbow community. With our "Helping Hands" activity, we extend our voluntary service by implementing an outreach/feeding program, a community pantry, a donation drive, and other compassionate services to our cherished community.
It was established on January 11th, 2022. It all began with a friendly discussion between friends. We discussed the problems that LGBT people's means of subsistence and prejudice against women currently face. We were aware that several LGBT people and women were unaware of their fundamental rights. Some of them struggled at work because they too faced discrimination. Yet what surprises us is that, despite the discrimination they currently experience, the majority of them backed our cause and were eager to assist when we first suggested something like community service. Some of them said that perhaps by participating in our activities, people would become less prejudiced and show us the respect we deserve. They believe that humanity still has hope..
When one of the LGBT community members in Cagayan de Oro had a house fire in March 2022, we conducted our first donation drive as a form of community service. To solicit assistance and funds, we used social media channels. Several LGBT people offered to help, and we realized that they were right when they said that humanity still has hope. The community service continues. The months that followed were fruitful. We had a bloodletting program in partnership with the Red Cross, a Spay and Neuter in partnership with CDO Animal Rescue Org, Brigada Eskwela in Indahag, CDO, and others. We were inspired to do more things and felt the need to aid more people after seeing the priceless grins of the folks we helped. We were also invited to participate in the first-ever Pride March in June 2022, and we were the largest group there that day. Some organizations tap us to get involved in seminars for human rights as well, and we got the chance to re-echo it with our co-members.
We are very happy that we are slowly being recognized as one of the participatory organizations here in Cagayan de Oro City, and helped many people, especially women, about their basic human rights and what they can do for our community. We are very grateful for this advocacy because we are slowly realizing our purpose in life. I can see how strong women's unity is. We see that despite the discrimination we experience in life, we stand united and stay resilient.
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