MANILA, 25 August 2007 — In a bid to ensure economic upliftment and good family relations, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Marianito Roque is encouraging OFWs to enroll their family in the labor department’s Family Circles program before leaving for another country.
As of Aug. 20, enrolled 1,2 00 families have enrolled and Roque said the program is expected to be fully operational by December, with a target to organize Family Circles of 15-50 OFW families per barangay.
Roque said the purpose of the program is to provide members updated information on employment opportunities, current livelihood prospects, information on in-demand skills and promotion of agribusiness projects.
Family Circles will also be oriented on financing schemes for income-generating projects and promotion of microfinance at the local level. Seminars on savings strategies and financial management will also be given to them to prevent them from being victimized by scams.
Families of OFWs who wish to go into business will be given trainings in entrepreneurship skills such as making feasibility studies, packaging, labeling of products and marketing, among others. Detailed skills training targeting in-demand businesses such as reflexology, bartending, jewelry making and carpentry are also in the Family Circles’ program.
Apart from the livelihood and economic components, the program also aim to provide support systems for OFWs and their families, including among others the building of stronger ties to strengthen family relations.
All these, according to Roque, are meant to help raise consciousness on the importance of preparing the families for the eventual reintegration of breadwinner OFWs.
This is in response to the need of the OFW families to have open communication lines and be “educated of moral values” the parents would like their children to have while the father or mother is running the home singly and one of the parents is abroad earning money.
Roque explained that the orientation of the Family Circles starts at the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) where one can voluntarily enroll his or her family at at the National Reintegration Center for OFWs
Studies reveal an increasing trend in break-ups of overseas workers’ families largely because members are unprepared for the emotional distance created by time and space. Some OFW children have likewise become drug addicts, pregnant or highly materialistic to compensate for the absence of one of the parents.
Roque told Arab News that a grocery project among 680 functional Family Circles is under way. Member OFW families can avail themselves of 50,000-peso commodity loans payable in two years.
For OFWs who wish to enroll their families in the Family Circle, Roque said the labor attachés assigned in the countries where they work can help them facilitate the enrollment even while they are still abroad.
