Memorial to Inconvenient Heroes
This site commemorates the loss of life amongst healthcare workers in the Filipino community. Below are the names, ages, dates of death, and other details of each Filipino healthcare worker in the UK who passed away during the pandemic, according to the non-profit Kanglungan. It is the companion piece to an eponymous installation going up in and around London by the street artist @alias_ibarra.
Their deaths represent whole universes shattered as so many were the main breadwinners of children, grandchildren, mothers, and fathers across the UK as well as the Philippines. My hope is that people who engage with this site or see the installation will begin to weigh the loss this small community continues to bear even as we emerge from the pandemic. A quick read through the names will uncover little resemblance to the names cast in bronze on the country's many war memorials. But they too fought and died on foreign soil for a righteous cause and that resemblance should be enough.
If you would like to help out the families recorded on these pages, please donate to the individual fundraising pages linked to above or consider making a donation to Kanglungan, who are doing amazing work helping underserved Filipinos in the UK.
If there are any corrections or additions to the records above, please let me know at ibarra_y_magsalin@protonmail.com
I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all the healthcare workers and every other essential worker who battled through this not-quite-over pandemic. Too many of them suffered and died, too little attention was paid.
@alias_ibarra