This is on August 29, 2011 (Monday) The activity will be from 6:30 am onwards.

Barangay San Jose and Majuben are the beneficiaries for this activity.

We are expecting 100 participants, Batang Atikha teacher-coordinators from partner schools, the Organization of OFW Families, BOSS V and other visiting OFWs.

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the next best time is today.

• Building upon the capacities of highly skilled migrants as well as migrants professional/ entrepreneur associations for development
• Encouraging collective investment of remittances for development in countries of origin
• Reinforcing capacities of senders and recipients to further the impact of remittances on development
• Migration and Development – General

Thematic area:
Remittances and financial sector development

Related countries:
Italy

The first Training of Trainers on Financial Literacy & Peer Counseling was held from October 19 to 23, 2009 at the Splash Mountain Resort Hotel, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. The training was held in cooperation with IOM-MRF Manila, Department of Labor and Employment National Reintegration Center for OFWs (DOLE-NRCO) & Overseas Workers Welfare Administration( OWWA).

It was participated in by 31 representatives from DOLE-NRCO; government staff from the Batangas and Cavite Provincial Capitol, City of Calamba and Municipality of Mabini and Cuenca in Batangas and Alaminos and Los Banos in Laguna; master teachers and principals from the Department of Education Laguna Division; and other partners of Atikha like Bangko Kabayan, Cavite Farmers and Feedmill multi-purpose Cooperative (CAFFMACO), Visayan Forum Foundation, Philippine Social Enterprise Network and Migrant’s Association from Cuenca.

“ Dati umaasa lang ako sa remittance ng asawa ko.” (I used to rely heavily on the remittance sent by my husband) shared Alice Caluza, wife of an OFW working in the Middle East. “Palagi na lang kulang kasi may 3 akong anak na nag-aaral. Walang naiipon at parang wala din saysay ang kanyang pag-aabroad. ( It (remittance) is never enough, what with the three kids in school. There are no savings left from what he sends, and it seems that his going abroad to work is quite pointless.” After her exposure to financial literacy seminars, Alice has been able to handle the finances fairly well. “I realized how important it is to know how to budget the money properly and be able to have saving regularly,” she relates. Even the children are now aware of the need for saving and wise budgeting. She trained on how to give Reflexology so she can earn extra money . “It is a way for me to have self-worth as well as a great help to our daily budget. This is also in preparation for the future,” she adds, “I don’t want our family to be separated forever by migration.”

Various studies shows that about 70% of the Filipino migrants are unable to save for their long term goals to enable them to return and reintegrate. Oftentimes migrants plan to work abroad only for 3-5 years but they end up working for 25 to 30 years and still with not enough investment to enable them to retire comfortably.

The main factors posing obstacles in using financial products linked to remittance are:

1. Lack of family goal setting and financial planning. Migrants work abroad dreaming of setting up business and investing but when they are already abroad they are confronted with a lot of issues and concerns and forget about their dreams and goals. They become pre- occupied with coping with family expectations or with spending on “status symbols” to cope with feelings of guilt for leaving the family behind rather than saving and investing. Migrants and their families do not discuss financial matters because these are very emotional issues. Spouses and parents are offended when asked where the remittance went.
   In our study of successful migrants, we learned that it is not how long they are working abroad or how high the salary that spells success but how they are able to do goal setting and financial planning as a family prior to migration during migration and return phase.
2. Another obstacle is the presence of family issues that drain the resources of the migrants such as family dependency and luxurious lifestyle of the family. Family members stop working the moment there is a migrant. In our communities, 70% of migrant families are solely dependent on migrant earnings. The standard of living of the family also changes the moment there is a migrant in the family. Therefore, despite increase income, there is nothing left to save.
3. Another factor is the migrants’ lack of information on financial products. This is because of lack of avenues to reach the migrants, posed by their working and living conditions. In Italy for example, majority of migrants are working as household service workers and oftentimes they do not interact outside of their social circles. Others even work on their days off to earn additional income.
4. Another factor is lack of innovative financial products in their communities that responds to their and their families needs. More than the yield of their investment, the migrants’ main concern is how to provide economic opportunities to their dependent family members who continuously drain their resources.

These obstacles were considered in the design of the financial literacy training of Atikha among migrants and families left behind. The financial literacy conducted by Atikha provides :

• hands on experience on budgeting, goal setting and financial planning. It provides time for mapping their dreams and reflecting on what they have achieved so far. It discusses how the family can adjust lifestyle, share the burden to enable them to achieve their goals.
• It involves not only migrants but also the family member who manages the funds in the Philippines since they oftentimes splurge on the hard earned money of the migrants. The ideal situation of the financial literacy seminar is when both the migrant and the family member managing the funds are attending the seminar together. The seminar provides avenue for communication to address financial and family issues .
• It discusses core issues for lack of savings and addresses problems in family values and issues that drain the resources of migrants such as dependency. It teaches them strategy on “How to say NO” “When to say NO and Why the Need to say NO” to prevent them from feeling guilty from saying “NO”. Filipinos have difficulty saying NO and we always feel guilty when we say NO.
• To reach out to the migrants and to be able to communicate financial information at their level, migrant leaders were capacitated to provide the financial literacy training and tasked to reach out to their own social network. The time and conduct of the training is adjusted to their needs and limitations. From 2 days training, the seminar was adjusted to 1 day training. The training is conducted not only in conference rooms but also in homes and other informal settings where the migrants are. Informal financial counseling sessions were also developed for those with no time to attend 1 day seminars.
• To reach to the families, Atikha trained staff of local government units, Non Government Organizations, schools and cooperatives in the source communities to be able to conduct financial literacy to the families left behind.
• To link with concrete investment opportunities in their communities, Atikha partnered with the largest agri-based cooperative in the Philippines, to form the Italy based SIDC migrant collective. The partnership provided the opportunity to:
  1. pool the savings of the migrants towards agri-based initiatives in their communities,
  2. bring down the cost of remittance to the pooled savings from Euro 8 to Euro 1 per transaction in partnership with money transfer organizations;
  3. higher yield for the investment of migrants compared to savings in bank;
  4. family members in the Philippines are offered business opportunities of the cooperatives and became part of the value chain of the enterprises of the cooperative which is involved in feed mill, rice mill, hog raising, coop mart among others.

Entrepreneurship has always been considered an option of migrants in their reintegration. However, we all know that not everybody can become an entrepreneur. Through the cooperative, they can choose to become mere investor or be involved in coop enterprises. Being part of a bigger enterprise reduces the risk and ensure assistance in management of the micro-enterprise.

The Atikha and FWC experience in the conduct of financial literacy seminar has shown that migrants and their families are not averse to saving and investing their hard earned money. Given the necessary information, skills and tools, migrants can make the correct choice, which is, availing of the best financial products that suit their financial goals. Providing the information, skills and tools through financial literacy seminars, however, requires a firm resolve to reach out to migrants and their families despite the difficulties posed by their living and working conditions.

Because of the success of the experience in building the capacities of migrants in training financial literacy, the training of trainers on financial literacy for migrant leaders was already replicated in the United Arab Emirates. The Ministry of Labor of UAE together with the Philippine Ambassador to UAE, Ambassador Grace Princesa and Labor Attache Jeffrey Cortazar requested Atikha to also conduct training of trainers on financial literacy not only to Filipino migrant leaders but also to migrant leaders and embassy staff of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and staff of the UAE Ministry of Labor.

We still have a long way to go in creating impact on the lives of the migrants, their families and communities and we are bracing ourselves for a bumpy ride but we are happy to note that we are taking the right direction.

Atikha is a non-government organizations in the Philippines involved in addressing the social cost of migration and in tapping the development potential of migrants. The partners of Atikha in the implementation of the financial literacy are Filipino Women’s Council in Italy, Comitato Internationale Sviluppo per lo Popoli, NGO based in Italy and the Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative, the largest agri-based cooperative in the Philippines. This financial literacy program of Atikha was made possible through the support of EC UN Joint Migration and Development Initiatives ( EC-UN JMDI), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Philippine Australia Community Assistance Program (PACAP) Interchurch Cooperation (ICCO), DOLE-National Reintegration Center for OFWs (DOLE NRCO), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and other government partners in the Philippines and abroad.

“Facilitating the school-based Atikha program proved to be such an eye-opener for me. I never really thought of it before, but I never thought there was a need to pay much attention to children of OFW workers and their needs. However, after being with the children for 13 Saturdays, and working with them on the workshop activities, I realized how important it was to address their needs and concerns and have a venue to voice out their thoughts and feelings about absentee parents, abusive guardians or their own personal conflicts. It was heartwarming to listen to the children speak about their experiences, as well as their hopes and dreams as they went through the different modules in the program. I learned a lot of things and it made me understand them more, and consequently , it also paved the way for a special kind of closeness ,bonding and friendship that would be hard to establish in a classroom setting where one is limited to the time and subject matter allotted. It also was a big responsibility, but teachers are used to that. I found myself dedicated and committed as the school based coordinator. In my heart I developed a deeper empathy to the children of OFWs and because of that I was even mobilized by Atikha in conducting trainers’ training in the Province of Cavite in order to replicate the special program for the OFW children in the said area.” – Bernadette Daquil , Teacher

Atikha has been working with the children of migrants for more than 15 years. Being a community based NGO, we are witness to the issues, heartaches and challenges of the children left behind. In our work with them we were able to identify their problems and concerns and have developed various modules, play shops, workshops, and other creative learning activities to be able to help them verbalize and process their feelings and be able to cope with separation.
Atikha has identified the following priority themes in working with the children of migrant workers: 1) developing awareness on migration realities; 2) bridging communication gap; 3) instilling savings consciousness; 4) promoting the importance of education and setting of goals; 5) fostering gender sensitivity; and 6) promoting peer counseling.

Developing awareness on migration realities

Most children of migrant workers are unaware of the living and working conditions of their parents abroad. They know that their parents are working as household service workers, nurses, caregivers or seafarers. But they do not have the slightest idea of the difficulties that their parents are confronted with.

Most of the children even have the impression that their parents are living a life of luxury abroad. Their parents present only the ‘positive picture’ and do not tell them the problems, stories of discrimination, and other difficulties they have to cope with. Stories related and pictures sent show images of their parents in beautiful homes, riding expensive cars, partying with friends, and visiting beautiful places. Thus, many children grow up resentful that they were “abandoned” to a difficult life in the Philippines while their parents enjoy the beautiful life abroad. Some of the children’s anti-social behaviors like drug addiction or dropping out of school are deemed by people as signs of rebellion for being left behind by their parents.

Atikha has designed series of modules for children of migrants and integrated them into a Migration Realities Seminar. The seminar uses various creative forms like games, role play, art workshop, and other activities that children enjoy doing. It has given the children a balanced perspective of migration and made them appreciative of their parents’ sacrifice and hard work.

Atikha is of the belief that children, no matter how young, should be provided with accurate information about their family situation. Awareness of the real situation of their parents abroad helps children cope with separation and makes them more responsible in doing their part to facilitate the return of their parents the soonest time possible.

Bridging the Communication Gap

Migrant workers usually do not tell their problems to their families because they do not want them to worry about their situations. Likewise, children, oftentimes, do not tell their parents about their problems because of the same reason. Both parties communicate but leave out important emotional details of their lives. Oftentimes, communication between them is reduced to financial matters, toys, and gifts that will be sent from abroad or bought from the money sent home.

The advent of advanced technology, cheaper and faster access to communication however, does not guarantee that the gap between parents and children will be bridged. There are people who spend hours talking over the phone about how the remittance should be spent or nagging children what to do or not to do. It is neither the frequency nor the length of communication but the quality of communication between parents and their children that really matters.

Atikha has developed modules that address the communication gap between children and their parents. Workshops entitled “Family Constellation” measures how close or distant the relationships are among members of a family. “Speed Dial”, a game which shows the frequently called cell phone numbers, provides further insights on the quality of communication. There are cases in Family Constellation where the OFW parents are drawn by their children at the back of the page, an illustration how extremely distant relationships can be.

Communication is important in nurturing the relationship between parents and children. Children should be encouraged to share their feelings with their parents, no matter how difficult or hurting this might be. They should also be encouraged to share their everyday triumphs as well. Atikha encourages children to write to their parents because it enables them to share more important and emotional details of their lives.

Instilling savings consciousness

Migrants who are mothers feel guilty for leaving their children. To alleviate such feeling, oftentimes, they resort to buying consumer items for their children. They pamper their children with material things as an expression of their love for them. However, it develops consumerism among the children. Worst, children begin to equate their relationship with their parents with material things that their parents buy for them.

The monthly remittance becomes the symbol of their parents’ love and affection for them. And since remittances are equated with love and affection, the demands of children for remittances become unending. From expensive toys, cell phones, and gadgets, they begin to ask for higher allowances, expensive birthday parties and more. This, in the long term, breeds dependency on the earnings of overseas Filipinos. Some children grow up expecting their parents abroad to pay for their education, weddings, and upkeep of their grandchildren.

To counter the growing consumerism and discourage dependency among children of overseas Filipinos, Atikha has organized the Batang Atikha Savers Club (BASC) which is an organization of youth savers. In the BASC, wise use and saving money are promoted among children.

Atikha has also developed a young entrepreneurship seminar which teaches the children how to earn from arts and crafts. The earnings they earn from their crafts are placed in their savings.

Promoting the importance of education and setting of goals

Among children of migrants, a growing disinterest in attaining higher education is observed. Education is being valued less. It is common to hear children comparing the income of their mother, a household service worker in Italy to college graduates who are locally employed.

Such is an irony because most migrants work abroad to ensure the education of their children. An Atikha study reveals that about 25.42% of migrant’s income is spent on education of children (Dizon-Anonuevo & Anonuevo, 2002). In some of the communities in Batangas, some children of OFWs are even unable to finish high school. Further, a number of children stopped studying because their parents have brought them along abroad, before they turn 18 years old. There are cases that they are also forced to work as household service workers.

Migration of parents is often planned as a temporary measure to save enough money. However, due to lack of financial planning and goal setting of the whole family, the initial plan to work abroad for three to five years is easily stretched to 15-20 years. Goal setting could have prevented the overseas Filipinos and their children from spending the productive years of their lives apart from each other.

Atikha conducts a module on Goal Setting for both the children and OFWs. The module emphasizes that whether they will be working in the Philippines or will be with their parents abroad, they will be better off with a good education. A good education ensures that children will be migrating out of their own choice and not out of necessity.

Fostering gender sensitivity

The feminization of migration and the inability of men to assume the nurturing role in the family have placed a lot of responsibility especially on female children of migrants. Some are robbed of their youth and are forced to grow up and fulfill the role of the mother in the family. In extreme cases, there are daughters who have been sexually abused by their own fathers.

Bringing awareness about equality of men and women is a tough job. There is resistance from adults especially from the male members of the family brought about by years of socialization that reinforces the ‘superiority’ of men. Atikha has tried to reach out to the husbands and fathers. ( Atikha partners with Provincial Social Welfare who conducts gender sensitivity to fathers through the ERPAT program).

Atikha conducts gender sensitivity training workshops among children of overseas Filipinos. Such training seeks to make them aware of gender stereotypes and enables them to become major influences in making their families sensitive to gender roles.

Promoting peer counseling

We have observed that children of overseas Filipinos usually confide, not to their relatives, but to their peers. It is thus important that children of the overseas Filipinos have peers whom they can talk to and influence them in positive ways. This is the reason why peer counseling is part of our capacity building seminars. The children need to be trained to be good listeners and to help other children in similar situation. Peer counseling teaches them to help others to express their emotions, verbalize their problems, and make the right decisions.

Training in peer counseling does not only provide participants the knowledge and skills. At times, it also provides them a venue to share their own problems and ventilate their pent-up emotions.

Reaching More Children of Migrants Through Teachers Training Program

We are receiving a lot of requests to conduct seminars for the children left behind and faced with limited staff and resources we thought it would be good if we can train others specially the teachers in conducting the various activities that we are doing. We developed teachers training manual “ Children’s Response to the Challenge of Migration: Teachers Training Manual on Migration Realities and Capacity Building for Children of Overseas Filipinos”. The manual included the various modules and also the reference materials that Atikha has developed through years of work abroad. Atikha also designed a 5-day teachers training program to teachers who will manage the program in schools with high concentration of children of overseas Filipinos. EC-UN JMDI provided assistance to conduct teachers training to 69 teachers in Batangas and Pampanga who will manage the school based program addressing the social cost of migration on the children left behind.

The schools sign a Memorandum of Agreement with Atikha committing themselves to initiate the program for children of overseas Filipinos after the training program. Atikha visits the schools and monitor and mentor them after the seminar. Atikha has already trained 120 teachers in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite and Pampanga and we have 40 partner schools in these provinces. Our partner schools have a population of 20% to as high as 80% of children of overseas workers.

We have been aware for a long time that Region 4 has the highest number of migrants in the Philippines however; migrants seem to be invisible in the eyes of the local government of region 4. 4 This is because migrants are considered to be relatively well off compared to other sectors of our society. To a certain extent this is true. How then do w we engage and involve the LGUs, regional bodies and other sectors in initiatives that will minimize the cost and maximize the gains of migration?

The EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiatives (EC-UN JMDI) project “Maximizing the Gains and Minimizing the Social C Cost of Migration” provided us with the opportunity of conducting series of migration and development fora in Region 4. The migration and development fora provided us with opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences on issues on migration and development with the national and local government agencies and other stakeholders.

WE were glad of the impact of the migration and development forum on the local and regional government agencies and in a way we were a amazed by the receptiveness of the local government agencies in creating programs and services for the overseas Filipinos and the families left behind. Immediately after the first regional forum, the various provincial governments have committed to sponsor and organize provincial forum in Batangas, Laguna and Cavite. One of the glaring issues that was raised is the lack of data on overseas migration making g it challenging for the LGUs to create programs and services. Thus the participating provinces agreed to gather information both on the social cost of m migration and the development potential of migration.

Asked why the Region 4-A NEDA and the various local governments became receptive to creating programs and services for the overseas Filipinos, Mr. Donald Gawe, OIC Chief Economic Development Specialist of NEDA Region 4-A shared, “I think the most important reason is because Region 4 has the biggest number of overseas Filipinos. It is not difficult to convince the local governments and department heads on migration issues and potential since most of them are personally confronted both by the positive and negative effect of migration. The migration and development forum also highlighted the fragmented intervention on issues of migration both at the national and local government agencies. We observed willingness on the part of the local governments to provide economic and social services for migrants and families and coordinated intervention by the different agencies and NGOs but they are hindered by their lack of capacity in implementing these services. The LGUs also want the national government agencies to take the lead in coordinating their intervention at the national level.”

Since Atikha has been operating Overseas Filipinos Migration Center in San Pablo City, Laguna in partnership with the city government, it was able to design a 4-day capacity building for LGUs in setting up One-Stop Overseas Filipinos Migration Resource Center. The training provided information on the following: Duality of Migration, Integrating Migration in Development Planning, the Nexus between Migration and Development, Economic and Social Services of a Migration Center, the Legal, Human Resource, Organizational and Other requisites in setting –up OF Migration Center. The participants were also given exposure on the on-going operation of an OFW center in San Pablo City. To deepen their understanding and establish coordination work with government agencies involved in migration, on the job training was arranged with OWWA and exposure to Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs was organized.

The series of migration and development fora lead to the creation of an Ad hoc committee on Migration and Development under the Regional Development Council of Region 4A. The ad hoc committee is currently being chaired by National Economic Development Agency (NEDA) Region 4A and co-chaired by Atikha. This is the first time in the Philippines that such a Migration and Development Committee, albeit Ad hoc status has been created under the Regional Development Council.

NEDA in Region 4 has also seen the fragmented set-up and policies on migration. NEDA sees its role as coordinator on migration and development initiatives while no government agency is willing to undertake this role. We are aware of the OFWs only when there are crisis, when they are jailed or on death row or when they are repatriated due to financial crisis or political turmoil. Interventions oftentimes remain crisis intervention. We have Local Development Councils and Regional Development Councils but never is migration and development tackled in such councils – neither the social issues nor the potential of their remittance to development” Donald Gawe.

The civil society and local government partnership on the advocacy on migration and development in Region 4A has been forged. At the moment, Atikha receives requests for assistance from 26 cites and municipalities in 5 provinces for the setting up of One Stop – Overseas Filipinos Migration Resource Centers. This covers only Region 4 A and Region 3. There are more requests from other provinces. This underlined both the desire of the local government to assist the migrants and families and their need for capacity building.

The partnership between the local government not only with NGOs but other stakeholders including the migrant and family organizations can transform the potential nexus between migration and development into a reality.