The Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) launched the Filipinas Against Violence campaign in response to the lack of a specific agency or organization in the U.S. that is geared to the needs and cultural considerations of Filipina women and girls in violent situations.

Domestic violence is a serious problem in the Filipino community. According to a 1998 homicide survey of the San Francisco District Attorney's office, 40% of women murdered by their partners were Filipina women. Many more incidents are unreported because victims are afraid. Victims believe they are shaming (hiya) themselves and their families if they talk about their violent situations. They blame themselves for the abuse and they do not know who can help, who can listen, where they can go for assistance. Culturally, we lack the language and the means to talk about "abuse at home".

FWN advocates the implementation of the blueprint released in 2002 to improve the City of San Francisco's system in helping victims of domestic violence.

It was the killing of a Filipina woman, 28-year-old Claire Joyce Tempongko, witnessed by her two young children, in 2000 that prompted the investigation of San Francisco's citywide response system to handle domestic violence. There is no Filipino on the commission that has been tasked to implement the investigation's results.

Kamala Harris, now San Francisco's District Attorney, wrote in an article in Asian Week (Dec. 5, 2003), "Our city desperately needs a change in our criminal justice system. I can sum up why I'm running for district attorney with the story of one Filipina American's life: Claire Tempongko."

Another Filipina woman, 32-year-old Marisa Corpuz, was killed by her husband, William Corpuz, in September 2004. Her death prompted San Francisco prosecutors once again to rethink the city's system for safeguarding victims and counseling their abusers. William Corpuz  had just completed 39 weekly counseling sessions before he slashed Marisa's throat in their home shared with her parents and one of their two young children.

The San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women has planted the seed in the creation of a Filipino Advisory Council now called the Filipino Community Alliance to examine the high domestic violence incidents in the Filipino community. Realizing that there is no specific agency or organization in San Francisco devoted to the needs and cultural considerations of Filipina women and girls in violent situations, FWN reaches out to the Filipino community through the following activities:

• CourtWatch tracking court cases involving violence against Filipina women and girls
  

• Publication of the V-Diaries, FWN's anti-violence resource and help guide

• Collaboration with V-Day through benefit performances of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues"  and "Usaping Puki" (an all-Tagalog version) as well as benefit readings of "A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls" and "Any One of Us: Words From Prison".  2006 was the first year that the all-Tagalog "Usaping Puki" has ever been performed in the U.S.

• Men Against Violence program and its "Handprints", a pledge by men and boys that their hands will never hurt women and girls

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