hail to the filipina migrant workers

this would have been posted a couple of days back but for a glitch in i dot ph, that somehow i could not access.  needless to say, we are still in the “women’s ” month and it is never too late to put in a piece to salute the ka-womenan — they who hold half of the world on their beautiful yet weary and oftentimes tortured shoulders.

in the last eight years or so my work centered on gender and development,  violence against women, human trafficking and migration.  its more than work and livelihood. 

it is passion and commitment hammered and stoked each time i visit a shelter for abused women, each time i hold the gnarled hand of an elderly lady on whom depend her two grandsons orphaned by HIV/AIDs, every bonding moment  with the girls at the womyns agenda for change with their inspiring brand of activism and enthusiasm to advance the rights of sex and garment workers in cambodia, each time i dance and prance with the trannies in the wac boat,  share a meal of monggo and fried fish with domestic workers from sagay in hongkong,  organize the alphabet week ends with the pinoy community in mongolia, celebrate life’s blessings and challenges with the house of joy.  

i am and have been a privileged migrant worker.  there are those who are less fortunate.  privileged or not, leaving home, kith and kin is never easy …. for most with dire consequences for the family, sometimes rendering irreparable damage to the social fabric.  yet, sacrifices are made. 

with acknowledgement and admiration, i hail the filipina migrant workers.  and all migrant workers for that matter…

To all those who journey from their homes to find a future, with dreams in their eyes, fear and excitement in their minds at what awaits, and pain in their hearts at leaving loved ones behind, often very young loved ones. 

Many of them, indeed many of us, reach our destinations with relatively few mishaps, hurdles or detours.

For many others unfortunately, the journey leads to destinations and landscapes unsafe, unimagined and undesired.  for some, the journey is arduously endless and the terrain consistently hostile. 

It is especially to these migrant women who are in harm’s way…. (that we pay) tribute to their courage and endurance, and to their indefatigable spirit to prevail against all odds, in quest of a better future.  Some may call these women trafficked, and sometimes we do too. 

But often the poetry of departures rendered through notes of optimism, joy and pain, leads us to the traveler whose journey has not yet ended, had not yet led her to the destination she sought. 

Then the only enlightenment that can dawn on any well meaning  entity is: what can we do to remove the hurdles and ease the way for this person, this trafficked migrant woman, in order for her to reach her destination and goal safely.

 (Collateral Damage.  GAATW report on Trafficking in Persons. 2007)