Former OFW pays it forward

One can go anywhere in the world and find Filipinos working or living there. Filipinos are truly citizens of the world, capable of adapting to every culture.

The benefit of this trend of migration and inculturation is not lost on the government — earnings of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remitted to the Philippines reach billions of pesos every year, significantly contributing to the country’s economy. But it does have its downside. The fragmentation of families, with either father or mother or in many cases both parents, working abroad, has left indelible scars on the children left behind. The deterioration of the marriage ties has led in many cases to separation or divorce, and the setting adrift of the children resulting in drug use, feelings of abandonment, loss of self-esteem, unwanted pregnancies, and even suicide.

Jess Ferrer, who joined the ranks of the millions of overseas workers in his youth and who parlayed his skills and earnings into a successful recruitment agency, knows all too well the challenges that face Filipinos who are forced to leave the country in order to ensure a good future for their families. He has come face to face with grieving co-workers, with men troubled about the families they left behind, with fathers struggling to cope with sons and daughters going astray as a result of their absence.

Recognizing these challenges, and in thanksgiving for the success they have attained, Jess and his wife Mercy decided to “pay it forward.” They decided to become involved in a program that addresses the needs of overseas workers and their families.

Couples for Christ, the community they joined as a means of strengthening their faith and their marriage, had launched the Migrant Workers Program in order to address the vulnerability of the migrants and their families to destructive forces. The program aims to inculcate important personal and family values designed to strengthen the workers’ moral fiber in facing the harsh realities of overseas work. It provides training modules on Moral Values Reorientation, with the sessions dealing mainly with inculcating values that serve to strengthen family relationships, among others.

 Started in 2009, the program has flourished, a testament to the growing number of migrant workers and their expressed need for support and guidance. A core group, led by Nolet Ladrido, was formed that later succeeded in also formalizing a partnership between the Department of Labor and Employment and CFC’s social ministry, TEKTON, which has continued to this day, with greater participation from other volunteer facilitators all over Metro Manila.

The growth of the program wa ensured when partnerships and linkages with the Catholic Church, through the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant Peoples (ECMIP), as well as with manpower agencies and NGOs, were formalized.

In keeping with his Christian values, Jess does not collect placement fees from applicants in his recruitment agency. According to Jess, it was his work in recruitment that inspired him to embrace the wider role of providing guidance and direction to overseas workers. It was in his agency that he started orienting his recruits with regard to the proper behavior abroad and the values that they need to embrace if they are to succeed not just as overseas workers but as heads of their families. In the beginning, Jess provided a Values Formation program for all his agency’s departing workers and their families. But later on, with the CFC’s involvement in migrant workers formation, he felt called to expand this work.

Jess says: “Joining the CFC community in 1997 has entirely changed my perspective in life and in business.” He is quick to add that “If you take care of God’s business, he will take care of yours. He will never be outdone in generosity.” He cites as proof of this the fact that he and Mercy rarely go on overseas marketing missions to promote their services but are still blessed with several solid, reputable clients. “The Lord uses our recruits to do the marketing for us!”

Under the program, CFC volunteers conduct the Moral Values Reorientation Program (MVRP) at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), for household service workers (HSWs) at the National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO) in Intramuros and at the Philippine Association of Service Exporters Inc. (PASEI), an association of about 700 private recruitment agencies. At PASEI, pre departure orientation seminar (PDOS), is conducted for about 200 departing workers daily as service to its member agencies, with CFC volunteers handling the MVRP. To date, at OWWA, around 20,800 OFWs have undergone the MVRP since 2010 while about 60,000 have gone through the program in PASEI since Feb. of 2011.

CFC has expanded the program to include the families that the OFWs leave behind (referred to as the Family Circles). Through partnership with OWWA and various parishes, the MVRP for Family Circles is starting to gain ground. The CFC MVRP-FC modules have available programs for each member of the family. The program was first piloted with dependents of OFWs organized by OWWA from Taguig; it will soon be conducted in strategic major cities around the country.

Apart from the OWWA, PASEI and parish engagements, the team likewise saw the immediate need to minister to other departing OFWs not covered by OWWA and PASEI. Thus, arrangements were done directly with several recruitment agencies to conduct the MVRP for departing workers and their dependents.

The work with the migrants is indeed so vast. With about 10 million Filipinos working overseas, assuming an average of five family members per migrant, half of the Philippine population is affected by this phenomenon. Jess, who has first-hand experience of how it feels to be an OFW, recognizes the need to be more fully immersed in the work to bring comfort, guidance, advice and assistance to OFWs. He is thankful that his community has seen fit to take steps towards helping OFWs cope with the unique challenges of their situation. He says: “We need more workers in the huge migrants vineyard because the work is indeed urgent.”