 |
| Mothers get briefed by a PathFinders volunteer |
Livelihood skills training for overstaying migrant mothers
will be the next focus of NGO PathFinders to prepare the women for their
reintegration into the Philippine society when they finally return home with
their babies.
This emerged from a briefing on the PathFinders’ Home
Country Integration Program, launched in
2018 to help former domestic workers with children born out of wedlock get on
their own back home.
The program was highlighted during the first visit to the Philippines
Fabregas, home country integration manager Medina Speers and
Carmen Lam, director of services, community education and outreach, gave The SUN a
briefing on the visit on Apr 24.
 |
| Fabregas, Lam and Speers at the briefing |
“Last year, we had 255 migrant mothers in Hong
Kong and about 13.7% of our clients returning home, so, we see
that the trend (for going home) is going up and we would need more assistance,”
Lam said.
She said the returnees represented 35 families (mothers and
their children) comprising 50% Filipinos and 50% Indonesians.
“We hope we can provide more assistance to the ladies who
return home as they can face different challenges back home,” Lam said.
 |
| Call us now! |
She pointed out the case of one returnee, identified only as “Elma,” who was already set to return home with her son by a South Asian asylum-seeker but hesitated at the last minute, revealing for the first time alleged threats by her estranged husband.
“She didn’t tell us that she had a husband back home. It
made the whole process challenging because we didn’t know about her husband and
the difficulties she faced,” Lam said
After being told of the possible risk and consequences of
overstaying, Elma returned home as planned.
Lam said that during their visit to the Philippines
She and Fabregas were particularly amused at their meeting
with Population Commission Executive Director Juan Perez III, who, they said,
gave the team a macro-level discussion of the economy and the problems wrought
by workers’ migration.
Fabregas said that initially, the focus was on shelter for
the mother and the child, and not livelihood schemes. But she acknowledged it
now appears that livelihood back home is the key issue for returnees.
Lam agreed. “Next step, I think we have to tap the NGO network to get
things move on easily, I hope. But we need to identify the bread and butter,”
she said.
Lam said PathFinders would explore livelihood programs that
would accommodate women with mixed-race children out of wedlock. She said that
during the visit, their team heard from NGOs about the challenges that women
with mixed-race children were facing in their communities.
Speers said Fair Employment, which has a training school
outside Metro Manila, had given them ideas about training the returning mothers
on certain skills such as beauty care, massage, manicure and pedicure.
She said these are self-employment skills that they use to
generate income while their children are at school.
The PathFinders officers said they would seek assistance
from the Consulate on providing livelihood training for the migrant mothers
before they return home.
===
I-TRY MO ITO, KATRIBO!
Mas madali nang tawagan ang mga advertiser natin dito. Pindutin lang ang kanilang ad at lalabas ang automatic dialer. Isa pang pindot ay matatawagan mo ang advertiser na hindi na kailangang i-dial ang numero nila. I-try mo!
Mas madali nang tawagan ang mga advertiser natin dito. Pindutin lang ang kanilang ad at lalabas ang automatic dialer. Isa pang pindot ay matatawagan mo ang advertiser na hindi na kailangang i-dial ang numero nila. I-try mo!
