ALKHOBAR, 3 June — After the Barya Mo, Buhay Ko, now comes the Hatid Tulong para kay Kabayan.
Another project of the Eastern Region Operations (ERO) of the Riyadh-based Philippine Overseas Labor Office, the program is a community outreach program to assist distressed Filipino workers in remote areas of the region.
ERO chief Labor Attaché Jainal Rasul told Arab News that the program will be formally launched on June 28 at the Park Hotel when POLO-OWWA and the Accredited Community Partners (ACPs) in the region as part of the Philippine Independence Day activities.
Rasul said that under this program, the POLO-OWWA will pool all non-monetary contributions and material assistance from donors and organizations to be farmed out to the less fortunate workers who are facing work-related problems.
“Most of our distressed workers are facing non-payment of salaries. While they pursue their complaints with the Saudi Labor Ministry, these workers don’t have food to eat and money to buy medicines and other daily needs,” Rasul said.
The program, which will be jointly conducted with the ACPs, will provide the distressed workers enough food, medicines and used clothings to be located in key areas where there are large numbers of distressed cases like Dammam, Hofuf, and Ras Tanura.
Supervising Welfare Officer Sotero Tornea, who jointly supervises the caused-oriented project, said that the OWWA staff in the region who are tasked to provide welfare assistance to OFWs will also compose the committee to receive donations from benevolent sponsors in cooperation with the ACPs.
Tornea said that the Hatid Tulong program is completely different from the recently launched Barya Mo, Buhay Ko program, which is to assist in the repatriation of the workers.
While the fund-raising campaign of Barya Mo, Buhay Ko is principally focused on defraying the plane tickets and other immediate expenses related to the repatriation of distressed workers, Hatid Tulong will provide food, medicines and used clothing to these stranded OFWs pending their repatriation to Manila, Tornea told Arab News.
In a related development, a Joint Consultative Committee on Welfare Matters will be established soon between POLO-OWWA and the Saudi Arabian National Recruitment Commission or Sanarcom.
Rasul said this development was the result of the recent visit of Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas to the Kingdom.
The committee is tasked to look after and find solutions to all welfare problems facing Filipino workers in the course of their employment in the Kingdom.
Rasul said the committee will also be looking into the conditions of the female workers in the Kingdom.
Training centers will be established in Manila where domestic helpers will be properly trained before they will be deployed to the Kingdom, he said.