Networking Forum for OFWs held in Hong Kong
17 May 2005
The Philippine Consulate
General in Hong Kong SAR hosted a workshop for Filipino community leaders
entitled “Global Filipinos Forum” on 15 May 2005 to strengthen the
networking and interaction of overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong.
The forum was part of the
Consulate’s seminar series on self-empowerment for overseas Filipino
workers in Hong Kong. It was held in cooperation with Global Filipinos,
Ugat Foundation, Hong Kong News and the Bank of the Philippine
Islands-Hong Kong. It was attended by 72 FilCom leaders.
Fr. Nilo Tanalega, director of
Manila-based Ugat Foundation and facilitator of the Forum, stressed that
“given the inevitable nature of migration, there is a high need for us to
establish safety mechanisms for migrant workers to minimize the harm and
maximize the good.”
“The objective of the forum was
to be able to increase awareness among migrants and migrant care-providers
regarding vulnerable points of migrants and the areas of positive response
regarding these vulnerabilities,” Fr. Tanalega said. “These vulnerable
areas are: psycho/emotional relation, legal and mediation, economic and
political.”
Fr. Tanalega presented inputs
and analyses about Filipino migrant issues in different parts of the
world, focusing on the following concerns:
-
how Filipino migrant workers
can engage in entrepreneurial activities that could support their families
so that they can return to the country;
-
how can they actively exercise
their suffrage rights in future national elections and attain meaningful
representation in Congress; and
-
how they can effectively cope
with social problems associated with being away from one’s family.
The forum successfully
solicited from the participants various recommendations on issues such as
family formation and enrichment, strengthening the value system, conduct
of career guidance for the children of migrants, and how to handle
finances.
Global Filipinos Forum is a
non-partisan coalition of overseas Filipino organizations which envisions
a responsive and committed global community of empowered and unified
Filipinos proactively participating in their motherland’s mainstream
activities and asserting their position in the international marketplace
to benefit the Philippines and Global Filipinos. Ugat Foundation is a
Jesuit apostolate for grassroots families.
The forum was the second of the
Consulate’s empowerment seminar series for OFWs and FilCom organizations
in Hong Kong. On 24 April 2005, at least 30 FilCom leaders in Hong Kong
participated in the seminar/workshop entitled “Piling-PILI Pinong PINO” in
Macau. It was facilitated by Dr. Zenon Udani, a Filipino professor of
management at the University of Macau.
The
seminar/workshop, held in cooperation with Philippine Labor Attache to
Macau Salome Mendoza and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration-Hong
Kong, was a special training for leaders on self-empowerment and to
provide them the opportunity to take a look at their leadership and social
roles given the changes that are happening within and outside the Filipino
community in Hong Kong.
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