Project Sunlight is a podcast that explores the more than 350 missing and murdered Filipino women in the United States based on the first-ever comprehensive database created by the host, Rissa.

As a Filipino American woman myself and community organizer, I can attest that the feminization of Filipino labor export has resulted in a number of human rights violations and exploitation against OFW (Overseas Foreign Workers). The United States is the number one destination for Filipinos and has the largest population of Filipino immigrants in the world. It is incumbent upon this country to protect our Filipino women from the dangers abroad through the dissemination of information, resources, and ultimately to administer justice.

Classification of Filipinos as belonging to the larger Asian American or "Asian Pacific Islander" population has proven to be problematic when conducting demographic research. More than 17 million members of nearly 50 different races and ethnicities are generally categorized as a monolithic group—Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Without proper disaggregation of data by subgroup, cultural heterogeneity within the group of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is masked.

While the database I have built primarily focuses on Filipino American women in the United States, there will be an ongoing effort to expand this database to include Filipino women in the diaspora from around the world. *The term 'Filipino American' also includes undocumented and non-resident Filipinos and does not necessarily imply citizenship.

The United States has had a significant role in the ongoing forced migration of Filipinos from their homeland after purchasing the Philippines from Spain for 20 million dollars in the Treaty of Paris in 1898. Filipinos were the first Asians to ever set foot in the United States, but our part in American history and contributions to society have been all but ignored or erased. They are the second-largest Asian American group after Chinese Americans but their visibility is stifled by decades of racism and institutionalized disenfranchisement. Within this framework of understanding, it is important to note that these circumstances have directly impacted the public's interest (or lack thereof) on the subject of missing and murdered Filipino American women.

If you’re interested in sponsoring this project, let me know.