This week and in the next two weeks, I wanted to focus on something I have not yet tackled in this blog. It is the phenomenon of our fellow Filipinos who are working overseas. According to latest statistics, this growing number of people roughly constitutes 10 percent of the country’s population, and is estimated to be about 11 million worldwide. That’s a staggering number, isn’t it?
The Filipino diaspora is such a significant phenomenon that affects many aspects of Philippine society. As a Filipino psychologist, I cannot deny the impact of this reality in the lives of many Filipinos, both living in the Philippines and those who are abroad. Many who have left their families to work overseas to provide better opportunities for their loved ones. The absence of parents among families with young children is just one of the social impacts of this phenomenon.
Last week, I did some training for this semester’s new batch of volunteer counselors for the OFW Online project. A brainchild of Dr. Gina Hechanova, one of my colleagues at the Department of Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University and a recent Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Awardee, she started an online portal for our compatriots overseas and their family members. In its bilingual (English and Filipino) home page (http://ofwonline.net/), it says:
“Welcome to OFWOnline! We know that being an OFW or having an OFW as a parent is difficult. That’s why we created this site to provide a venue where OFWs and their families can seek support from either their peers or trained counselors. There are three services that are being offered for free in this site: counseling services, family chat, and forums.”
The project began in 2009 as an experiment of sorts. As online counseling is really quite new, it turned out to be an experiment that was worth continuing. Apart from the potential of reaching out to the millions of Filipinos overseas and their families, it also served as the research and training venue for the Department of Psychology of the Ateneo de Manila.
It is a project that has modest funding, and many of the people involved volunteer their time, effort and expertise. Most of our counselors are students of counseling psychology in our graduate program, and aim to provide decent and professional counseling services at no cost to the users.
Many people are looking for opportunities to help others. If you are one of these people, here are a few ways you can help us:
§ Spread the word about the OFW Online website (http://ofwonline.net/) to anybody you think might benefit from it;
§ Tag the site or this article on your facebook, twitter, or other networking sites so more people will know about this website and project; or
§ Donate money or introduce us to benefactors who can help sustain the project.
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