Tell us about your club or society. What are your aims and activities?
Leeds Filipino Society was established in 2017 for Filipinos and those interested in the Philippines to come together and celebrate the culture, meet with one another and network together. Our aims are to provide a useful and safe space not just for Filipinos but for the wider community. We plan to make use of the virtual space this year and have been able to host a wide range of activities such as a recent escape room event and a refreshers quiz.
What are you getting up to for the World Unite Festival this year?
We’re planning on using our platform to share Filipino recipes throughout the Festival period. Since the theme is “Coming Together” we want to be able to allow people to come together through the love of food, something we have all relied on during COVID-19.
World Unite Festival is a celebration of different cultures – it is a way of sharing our cultures and learning from one another. How do you think your society does this?
Our memberships cater to everyone so anyone can join, we welcome a lot of members from different cultures, backgrounds, and local universities. We have been very lucky this year to have such a diverse committee consisting of Singaporean/Swiss, Chinese, Scottish/Malaysian backgrounds as well as Filipino. We love the fresh perspectives of the committee and also the new members that join every year and we are so fortunate to be able to learn from these cultures and be able to grow as a society through planning inclusive events.
How do you think clubs & societies help meet new people and create friendships whilst at university?
Societies are an integral part to the University life; for culture societies especially, they give a sense of identity to members and allow them to be a part of a group of people that share common interests. Having a range of clubs/societies at LUU allows people to delve into a range of different things and that also comes with being able to meet a wide range of people. This makes it easier for students to integrate into the University social circle and allows them to find long term friends due to common interests. Though this can’t happen right now, being able to meet occasionally has helped with student interaction and has allowed students to be a lot more social.
Does your club/society have any events or projects planned in the pipeline that you’d like to tell me about?
We currently have an online movie night planned for our members and we may be in the works to designing some merch to allow graduating members to remember our society.
How can people get involved in your club/society?
People can follow our Facebook and Instagram Page “Leeds Filipino Society” or “LUFILSOC”, buy a membership directly on the LUU webpage or give us an email lufilsoc@gmail.com – we are more than happy to respond to any messages people send us and we post our events regularly on there.
