GUEST POST: Empowering OFWs in Italy

Inquirer.net blogs
09/16/08
By Cristina Liamzon*

Many said it couldn’t be done–that there wouldn’t be much interest among OFWs for yet another training program and that the initiative simply couldn’t be sustained. That OFWs in Italy were only interested in working and earning an income as domestic helpers, nannies or caregivers to elderly Italians, that they didn’t have any time to spare, even on Sundays to attend training programs, especially one which was a year-long, and which focused on the subjects of leadership and social entrepreneurship. After all, the term social entrepreneurship is new and sounds vague for many. What examples could we show of successful social entrepreneurs, or social enterprises that the trainees could use as models to create their own after the training?

Skeptics opined that it would be difficult to find enough trainees who would participate and finish the program and that it could be a waste of time, money and effort. Still, the Associazione Pilipinas OFSPES, a Rome-based NGO hoping to empower overseas Filipinos in Italy, attempted to pursue this dream.

It all began in early 2007. We explored collaborations with the Philippine Embassy to Italy, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and OWWA and the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government to interest them in a project that would enhance the leadership and social entrepreneurship skills of our OFW’s in Rome, and then we did an extensive promotion and fund-raising for the program. Despite the initial tepid interest among Filipino communities and armed with limited human and financial resources but a lot of determination, a clear vision and much enthusiasm, the program was launched last April 6, 2008 with some 30 OFWs as trainees. By the second training module on May 18, this number had increased to more than 50 OFWs and youth who had heard about the first session and who fulfilled the essential requirements for participation.

One Sunday for every month from April 2008 to March 2009, a formal training session would take place to create a new breed and cadre of Filipino leaders in Italy, which include several young people below 30 years of age.

Mentors from POLO/OWWA staff, private sector managers and the Associazione Pilipinas OFSPES members have volunteered to help. Staff of the Ateneo School of Government also form part of this mentoring group using the Internet. Mentors in Rome provide advice and encouragement of trainees in-between the formal training sessions.

Modules that have been given so far since April include: an overview of servant leadership and social entrepreneurship concepts; computer skills training, including understanding and utilizing Web2 tools and Word, Excel, PowerPoint programs; basic financial literacy; conflict management and negotiations.

Succeeding sessions will cover: developing and implementing social enterprise plans (marketing, funds mobilization, etc); trainors’ training on financial literacy (budgeting, savings and investments); strengthening communication and facilitation skills; group building; business planning in Italy.

Sessions with practicing business persons and leaders of Filipino communities are also planned. Most of the resource persons would come from Rome to handle the courses while the Ateneo School of Government would send resource persons for the modules on social entrepreneurship.

Trainees have been enthusiastic about the training sessions, highly appreciative of this opportunity to expand their horizons, build new skills that can benefit themselves, their families, their communities and the society in which they live, whether in Italy at the moment or eventually back in the Philippines. This training has been made available to migrants who have yet to fully integrate into Italian society or are seeking new directions or livelihoods.

The training program is now about 30 percent into its implementation and the results are already evident. Trainees have said their eyes have been opened beyond their current employment as domestics or caregivers. They are grateful for having learned many new things to be able to hold up their heads high, empowered and enthused and more importantly, fired up with a desire to share these skills with our other kakabayans.

(Cristina Liamzon of Associazione PILIPINAS OFSPES, in Rome)