Nursing the world

The booming global services industry has resulted in a 21st century diaspora of Filipinos and Filipinas seeking job opportunities abroad. Asian Development Bank studies show that 2,700 Filipinos leave each day for foreign countries as contract workers, immigrants, or as tourists hoping to find work, that there are 7,582,502 Filipinos residing and/or working overseas, and that of the contract workers, over 65 per cent are women.

A relatively recent phenomenon is the boom in nursing care, which has seen the unprecedented shift in career choices, i.e. of medical doctors taking up the nursing course in order to work in medical facilities overseas. Some 5,500 Filipino doctors are now enrolled in 45 nursing schools in the country, hopefully to join the bandwagon of 84,843 Filipino nurses who went overseas to work from 1994 to 2003.

The outflow of Filipino workers has resulted in the improvement of lifestyles of families left behind in the Philippines out of the remittances sent by relatives working in Middle East, United States and European establishments as nurses, entertainers, caregivers, domestic helpers and chambermaids.

Modern-day information technology bridges the distance gap between workers and families in their homes in the Cordilleras, Misamis Oriental and Masbate (mainly through the cellular phone and Internet chat)), and majority of the breadwinners overseas being women, husbands have changed roles too – from macho drinking buddy to housekeeper and mother.

But forced migration has also meant loneliness – on the part of the workers and on the families they left behind.

The question is, is it only for the money that the workers brave loneliness and the threat of their families’ breaking up? Can they find worthwhile activities that give them self-fulfillment and happiness?

An excellent report on the situation of overseas Filipino workers is that of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, entitled "Nursing the World." (Published by PCIJ, 3/F Criselda II Building, 107 Scout de Guia street, Quezon City 1104, telephone: 4104768, fax 929-3571, and email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Articles are on yayas or nannies; schools training medical doctors to become nurses, and caregivers. There’s a story on a Filipino nurse who became a foster parent in London. There are features on people sending balikbayan boxes, complemented by pictures on how those boxes are shipped and carried to the doorstep of recipients. One story is on doctors who decide not to join the exodus abroad but work in the barrio. A story is on the children of Filipino-Americans who talk about their search for identity that led them to come, study and live, albeit temporarily, in their old folks’ country.

Another story, "My Arabian Nights," talk of how workers in Saudi Arabia while away time and shake off loneliness, including having liaisons with just-as-lonely Pinoys abroad and gay relationships.

"Digital Families" relates the use of the Internet by OFWs. In Saudi Arabia, there is not much access to the Internet for them, but hardly any OFW is without a cell phone, and, writes Jose Torres Jr., "even the prepaid cell phone cars have become part of the OFW survival kit. No wonder that last year, a group of OFWs denounced the government’s plan to impose taxes on mobile text messaging, saying text message taxation would have ‘grievous financial effects’ on overseas workers who rely on text messaging to communicate with their families."

Jose mentions Jay Valencia, spokesman of OFWs Laban sa TextTax, as saying that Filipino overseas use text or the short messaging system (SMS) to handle family matters, such as financial management and disciplining of their children. Jay says a P8-10-international text message is cheaper and more efficient than sending recorded voice tapes, which usually take about a month to get to family members in the Philippines.

"Men as Mothers" talk of the travails of men who have taken on the role of househusbands. Maximino "Macoy" Leya of Bacoor, Cavite, makes an interesting story. As if he didn’t have his hands full managing the household, he has reopened a small store beside the family house so he can contribute to the family coffers. He cooks for his elementary grade kids (a skill he learned while working in Saudi). He does the marketing late in the morning. He washes and iron clothes, taking care to do the children’s uniforms first.

But it’s budgeting his wife Florence’s remittance that often leaves Macoy exhausted. (Florence works in Saudi.) In the past, they used to allocate P20,000 for their monthly expenses, now that amount is no longer sufficient. Macoy confides: "It’s so hard to budget. There are so many school projects. Whenever the two younger children ask for money, my budget is ruined. My daughter says she needs shoes, but she ends up also buying a pair of pants. It’s difficult to say no."

And the loneliness? Macoy says, "I think of her (Florence) every day, she is never out of my mind. Sometimes the children see me staring into space, and it’s because I’m thinking of her. I’d ask them, ‘I wonder if your mommy has already eaten?’ I keep wondering if she’s still at work, if she has gone home, if she is safe."

* * *

The International Rice Research Institute has opened two lactation stations so that nursing employees can express their milk in complete privacy. Ian Wallace, IRRI director for human resources and administration, had the stations set up so that nursing employees can conveniently provide breast milk for their babies.

By setting up the stations, Charina Ocampo of the IRRI communication unit says the Institute leads the way in establishing workplace lactation stations in the country. Congress has yet to create a law requiring employers to set up lactation rooms in the workplace.

Boots Anson-Roa and Dr. Luis Cirillo, chief of staff of Congressman Guillermo Cua, graced the inauguration of the stations.

What I’d like to know is whether the babies are placed in the stations the whole day, or are brought to the stations at specific times by yayas or grandmas so they can be breastfed by the working mothers.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]