My sister is going to UAE!

I'm not gonna lie to you. I will miss you while you are not here because you have been with me since we're young. I will miss your laugh and the way you tease me to girls. You never asked me to do better because you know how I work wise for me to get to where I am.

With the ongoing financial crisis to our family, my older cousin sister decided to go to UAE with her mother. Yes, nanay Venus is also working in Dubai for about 8 years now. She wasn't able to come back to the Philippines because of the threat of covid-19 before. It was truly heartbreaking for us to bid goodbye again to one of our family members to go abroad for work. It will never be good, but it will be for the sake of family.

Last night event

Since my sister's flight was later this afternoon, we have planned to make a simple celebration before she left. This celebration was intended to make her smile and laugh so that she had a good last memories. I am very glad that we arranged this little celebration of ours.

We bought some fries, popcorn and pizzas. Also, we are permitted to drink alcoholic beverage since its just occasional. Soju and wine are the two beverages we bought at the local supermarket around the next street. In fact, I was the one who cooked them. Gosh, there's some boiling oil sprinkled from my hands last night. It burns my skin, but it is just minimal. If you are wondering if I drink last night, no. I drink only one shot then I stop. I really don't like to drink alcoholic beverages.

We picked a particularly movie in Netflix. As you expected, 90% browse, 10% watch. We preferred to watch horror-comedy movie just perfect for everybody's choice. At first, we make sure we will not scresm because we might wake up our neighbours. It will be bad for us. We don't use our phones last night to make sure that everyone is focus on the simple celebration we had. Thankfully, my cousins are just too cooperative.

Overseas Filipino workers statistics

If we think about it, most of Filipino households have an overseas Filipino worker (OFW). It might be your mother, father, husband, wife, sister or brother. There are various reasons why we they go abroad to work. But one thing is certain, the lack of minimum wage rate in our country. Based on the 2019 survey of Philippine Statistics Office (PSA), there are about 2.2 million OFWs. Thus, the current exact number of OFWs today haven't been confirmed due to wide spread of the pandemic.

Are you wondering who has higher percentage of Filipino workers? Is it female or male ones? In fact, based on PSA's data from 2019, there are proportion of 56% female higher than male which only have 46%. This is evident since most of these female OFWs are mothers and working as domestic helper (DH). Surprisingly, most of these OFWs are from CALABARZON region with a total percentage of 20.7%. It is followed by Central Luzon, National Capital Regiom and Western Visayas with 13.3%, 9.7%, 9% respectively.

Still, Saudi Arabia has the highest country with OFWs 22.4% (492,800) and I think Saudi is popular since then. It is followed by United Arab Emirates with 13.2% (290,400), Hongkong 7.5% (165,000), and Taiwan 6.7% (147,400). These data is still based on PSA as per survey on 2019.

As of the moment

I am amazed to the data I had researched awhile ago. I amazed to how these OFWs make it and survive abroad. Most especially when I knew that women are very dominant than men in number. Salute to your mother if you have mother working abroad.

Today, as I was writing this blog we're about to leave our home to deliver my sister to the airport. I am very sad right now, I really am. But on the other hand, I'm excited to what the future has for my sister. She is a strong, independent woman who can carry herself in every situation she was in. That is the reason why we trust her in this journey. Although my grandma is quite mad because she was the one who raised my sister and leave like that. But we know my grandma understand the whole situation.

The new heroes

Overseas Filipino worker are the new heroes of our country. Starting their journey to unfamiliar country with unfamiliar culture, language, writings, currency and beliefs. However, despite of the big difference, this doesn't stop them to work and strive in a foreign region. I believe that these OFWs are the new heroes of the country. Without their understanding and unending support to their family, I do not know how much the difference of life they have now.

Thank you for reading!