A non-government organization catering to migrant workers from Mindanao has considered extending its livelihood program to the abandoned families of overseas Filipino workers.
The Davao City-based Unlad Kabayan Migrant Services Foundation is reviewing a proposal from another OFW advocate group to reach out to the distressed wives, husbands and children who were abandoned by their OFW spouses and parents.
Benilda Rom of Unlad Kabayan said that they are mainly concerned on the economic rights of migrant workers by establishing savings and investments on OFW’s behalf.
For 15 years of operation, Rom said that Unlad Kabayan has been assisting returning OFWs from various parts of Mindanao establish their business and livelihood projects.
However, Rom said they will look into the proposal from the Davao City-based Mindanao Migrants Center for Empowering Actions Inc. (MMCEAI) to extend Unlad Kabayan programs to the abandoned families of OFWs.
She disclosed that around 8,000 families of migrant workers including the established OFWs, and another 1,000 migrants have availed of the livelihood assistance from Unlad Kabayan.
The community-based livelihood program is more focused on agriculture, Rom said citing projects such as coconut coir plant, rice center and rice mill in Surigao del Sur and other areas in Mindanao in partnership with the local government units.
She said that the assistance could reach up to P400,000 as a start-up capital for a business plan.
MMCEAI has called on the assistance of Unlad Kabayan during the celebration of the International Day of Migrants on December 18 here in the city.
The group reported an increasing incidence of abandoned wives, husbands and children documented in its briefing paper on the State of Abandoned Families of OFWs in Davao Region.
MMCEAI has catered to 55 cases of abandoned families from the 65 cases documented by the city government’s Integrated Gender and Development Division (IGDD).
It disclosed that only 12 cases were filed to court, mostly concerning charges on multiple marriages, economic abuse such as non-remittance of earnings and intermittent support, and child custody.
The other forms of abandonment include non-communication, loss of care and eventual disappearance.
Most of MMCEAI cases involved abandoning parties who work as seafarers and domestic helpers in countries such as United States of America, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, among others. [PIA 11/CARINA L. CAYON]
