Ariana Olar has recently arrived in Wellington with the 2021 and 2022 cohorts of young leaders from Mindanao in the Philippines. Ariana has just finished managing Workers’ Watch, a three year EU funded project promoting workers’ rights in Mindanao. Across eight communities, strong networks were built and training provided to hundreds of workers – many from banana and pineapple plantations. Topics included were labour standards, paralegal skills, human rights, and workers’ rights violations – very risky discussions in a country where unionists are often killed for their work.
Ariana had her eyes opened to social ills and injustice when she joined the student movement and student council at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao at the age of 18. Committed to workers’ rights, she is now developing a project for her return home which will analyse the impact of violations on unionists and their resilience.