Image via WikipediaAn April 6, 2011 press release prepared by the Department of Labor and Employment
Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz is encouraging women OFWs who have come home to become entrepreneurs, even as she bared that the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III is all set and ready to implement a reintegration program that will make it easy for OFWs to decide to stay in the Philippines for good and to no longer seek jobs in foreign lands.
Speaking at the turnover of DOLE livelihood projects in Zamboanga City last week, Baldoz said:
“The government is seeing to it that the economy grows to create more jobs and accommodate more Filipino workers, including returning OFWs. And we are all working towards the coming of the day when overseas employment will just be an option for our countrymen. I encourage our OFWs, women particularly, to become business owners or entrepreneurs.”
Baldoz, assisted by DOLE Regional Office No. 9 regional director Ponciano Ligutom, was in Zamboanga to attend the hand-over of 17 DOLE livelihood projects under its Integrated Livelihood Program worth P397,000 to 56 beneficiaries, eight (8) of whom are former OFWs.
Of the eight, six are women who formerly worked as household service workers in Saudi, Kuwait, and Dubai, while the two were former construction hands, also in Saudi.
The six—Nurmilyn Yusop Jumah, Raisa N. Sarael, Nihma Ami Jupuri, Maribel Dugasan Ganih, Mindamura S. Tahil, Zenaida Abubakar Ibrahim—all received starter project kits consisting of a sewing machine, bundles of textile, and sewing accessories worth P9,446 each or a total of P56,676.00
The two male OFWs—Jubaira A. Said and Malik Mohammad Bebio—each received a “sikad-sikad” or “padyak” each worth P7,593.00.
Baldoz commended the former OFWs for their courage in embarking on self-employment livelihood as an alternative to wage employment.
“Self-employment is a very viable option particularly for our OFWs who have returned,” Baldoz said, saying that the National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO) is ready to assist those who would venture into business.
The NRCO is the government agency under the DOLE and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in charge of delivering reintegration and other allied services to all returning OFWs.
Given P1 billion by President Aquino last year for the national reintegration program, it provides an array of services that included business counseling, financial management and business training, as well as referral for small business loans.
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