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Monday, March 27, 2006
Partnership gives OFWs cyber-skills
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
RITCHEL Pepito, 25, left the country to work as a domestic helper in Kuwait.
But now, she is employed as a secretary in a Kuwait-based British Pool Company, although the Lapu-Lapu City resident only finished high school.
Pepito is among the 542 beneficiaries of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa)/Department of Labor and Employment and Microsoft information technology training programs for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families, which started in June last year.
“I did not even go to college or had an experience with computers before. Thank God because the government gave us this opportunity,” she said in an e-mail to Owwa 7.
Summer school
Owwa 7 Director Wilfreda Lepiten-Misterio said they hope to have more success stories like Pepito’s.
This summer, they are encouraging local schools to gather OFW dependents so they could avail themselves of the program.
They also encourage families of OFWs, especially the spouses, not to be intimidated to learn about technology.
The program also allows OFWs, who are on vacation, to upgrade their computer skills while waiting for the processing of their deployment papers.
“Because aside from bridging the communication gap, one of the objectives of the program really is to give them (beneficiaries) areas to improve in, whether professionally or personally,” Misterio said.
Corazon Ortega, 48, whose husband Cipriano, 47, has been working as a seaman for over 10 years, said she is now able to send e-mail to her siblings who are in the United States.
“Kahibawo na sad ko mo-chat. I thought dili nako makakat-on kay edaran na. Pareha sa cellphone nga dugay kaayo ko nakat-on (I’ve also learned how to chat. I thought I’d never learn to use computers because of my age),” she said with a laugh.
Since her husband does not know how to send e-mail yet, Corazon said she is ready to teach him once he comes to Cebu.
She is also less worried about communicating to her three children, who are now finishing nursing courses, and may soon work abroad.
Coping
“Mas dako ang advantage kay dili na mo-mingaw gyud ba (It will help me cope with loneliness),” she said.
According to Owwa 7 records, a total of 224 beneficiaries already took up the three-day computer fundamentals course, which touches on hardware and software components and an overview on word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software and Internet-related tools.
The other preferred courses are web design and spreadsheet fundamentals.
Aside from the three courses, the training includes courses on the Internet and World Wide Web fundamentals.
Cymbeline Rago, the training officer, said Microsoft provided 20 units of high-end computers, which are now inside a room in the LDM Building along M. J. Cuenco Ave.
Misterio said the units were provided by Microsoft through a grant.
They also give priority to OFWs and according to their records, 350 OFWs availed themselves of the program. The training is also available to OFWs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and soon in Saudi Arabia.
Those who finish the courses will get certificates, which could be part of the employment credentials of the beneficiaries.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 27, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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