70 BAGUIO-BASED OFWS GET ASSISTANCE
22 June 2021 – The city extends assistance and necessary interventions to some 70 returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) for them to be able to rejoin their families from January to present.
City Social Welfare and Development Officer Betty Fangasan disclosed that 60 percent of the returning OFWs were said identified as distressed after having lost their jobs overseas that caused them to be repatriated by the national government.
Aside from having lost their jobs overseas, she added that the returning OFWs saw the problems of their families were facing due to pandemic and the effect of their lost livelihood that aggravated their situation thus compelling the local government to support their return.
The returning OFWs were referred to the city government by the International Social Services Office (ISSO) through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the extension social protective services.
Among the assistance that were extended by the city to these OFWs included financial assistance, psychological first aid, counselling, referral to other agencies, and appropriate interventions available in the said office.
Fangasan claimed that majority of the returning OFWs were those whose employment were significantly affected by the ongoing Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 pandemic and were displaced leading to their eventual repatriation.
According to her, the city was able to return these displaced OFWs after providing them with assistance and interventions for them to renew the harmonious family relations after their long years of being apart.
She stipulated that monitoring will be done to ensure that the good family relations will be enhanced and the returning OFWs’ linkages with the community will be established.
Fangasan explained that the aforesaid services will be provided to future returning OFWs that need the same after having been repatriated because their present jobs have been affected by the ongoing pandemic.
She called on returning OFWs and the members of their families to continue availing of the services from their office for them to be able to bring back the harmonious relationships that they had in the past for them to continue to be productive individuals in the community.
The city social welfare and development officer recognized the difficulties of the returning OFWs who sacrificed to be away from their families in order to earn to support their families’ needs, thus, they deserve to be assisted and provided with interventions from concerned government agencies and the local government for them to hurdle the difficulties that they have experienced while working overseas.
She asserted that assigned social welfare officers are very much willing to extend to the returning OFWs the assistance and interventions they deserve from them to recover from their experiences overseas. – Dexter A. See
