BONTOC, Mountain Province – People working overseas or those away from their families must learn to stand alone and be strong enough in facing the challenges that may arise for them to succeed in partly improving the living condition of those that were left behind in their places of origin.
For Aimee Grail Awing, 28, a college undergraduate who hails from barangay Alab Proper, the work in a foreign land is doable and easy but having to leave behind a growing family is quite difficult, especially during the early stages of deployment, thus the need for individuals to be strong enough to be able to overcome the birth pains of having a long distance relationship for the next three years. Aimee left to the care of his mother and her husband an 8-year old boy and a 5-year old girl to be employed as a farm worker trainee in the Maruyama Farm Co., Ltd. Based in Kumamoto, Japan.
“My mother reminded me to be a strong person and to learn to stand alone because there will be no one that will come to my rescue during hard times if not for me and those who understand my situation in the foreign land,” Awing stated while adding that the first months of her work in the company was really challenging because of the language barrier even if they were able to master the same through the 4-month language training and the review that was conducted in preparation for their deployment to Japan last year.
Aimee already experienced the difficulties of life at a tender age having to help her parents in their work on the farm during her free time and weekends. Ironically, her parents parted ways when she was in second year high school and that she and her younger sister and brother were left to the care of their mother.
“We had to help our mother earn a living for our family that is why we had to spend our extra time working in the garden for us to produce various vegetables that will be sold in the neighborhood for us to earn for our substance,” she said.
Her mother had to work as a house help outside the province just to provide for the needs of the family that is why she had to take care of her younger sister and brother who were going to school at that time. She had to take the lead being the eldest of the family that allowed them to survive the challenges that confronted their family while they were young.
Aimee was able to enroll at the State-run Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC) to take up an education course. After another semester, she decided to shift to take up a hotel and restaurant management course.
“I was confused at that time on what course to really take that is why I tried to enroll in various courses to try what will suit my interest. Again, having to sustain my studies was one of the major considerations at that time because my o=mother was working outside the province just to provide our family’s needs and that she might be burdened if I hand to take up courses that will entail heavy expenditures,” Aimee added.
Eventually, she was able to avail of short-term scholarships with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) where she was able to acquire competencies on bread and pastry making, agriculture, tile setting and body and facial massage successively with the hope that it will help her family in providing sustainable source of livelihood for them as her family started to grow.
Aimee is married to Roland Awing of Balili, Bontoc and that while they were starting a family, she ventured on cake making while tending a parcel of land owned by her parents that helped them in providing their basic needs.
“Our income that time was somewhat sufficient although cake making is based on the orders being made by our neighbors while tending our farm took much of our time. We were able to provide for our needs and initially survive the challenges of life even with that simple kind of living which is usually the trend in the rural communities,” Aimee said.
While she was doing farm work sometime after the May 9, 2022 synchronized national and local elections, she was informed by her aunt working in TESDA that there was an upcoming conduct of a free Nihongo language training which is one of the requisites for possible employment in Japan considering the need for interested individuals to be gainfully employed in the foreign land and that she encouraged her to try availing of the said training, especially that it is for free. She immediately went to Sabangan to inquire about the Nihongo language training from the designated coordinator but she was informed that the slots were already filled up, thus, she had to be placed in the waiting list or for the succeeding batches of trainees.
“I was disappointed that time to be informed that the slots had already been filled up. I went home a lonely person then but I still prayed that God will give me the signal if I am destined to work overseas for the sake of my growing family,” she added.
After a few weeks while she was working in their farm, she again received information from her aunt that there are available slots caused by the sudden withdrawal of some applicants that backed out in the early stages of the Nihongo language training, thus, without hesitation, she immediately rushed to the nearby town of Sabangan which was just a few minutes travel from their place with the hope that she will be the one to be selected for the available slots knowing that there are also interested individuals who are in the waiting list like her.
“When I arrived in the place, there were other interested applicants who were also in the area to try their luck to get the available slots for the training but I prayed hard that I will be the one that will be selected for one of the two available slots. Luckily, the coordinator called my name to fill up one of the vacated slots that is why I consider the said situation as a turning point in my life from a purely farm person to a trainee,” Aimee said.
She admitted that the 4-month Nihongo language training was really grueling that the trainees had to spend part of their time to study their lessons for them to be fluent in speaking the language for them to have an advantage landing in gainful employment once they will be interviewed by their prospective employers.
“I stood my ground because I knew that it was start of the difficult way to success. It was now or never that is why my prayers were answered that there will be a time that I will be given the rare opportunity to have a gainful employment, locally or overseas, and I will surely do my best for the sake of the betterment of my growing family” Aimee claimed.
For the record, she disclosed that she was not selected in the first four times that she was interviewed by her prospective employers but she did not lose hope although there were instances that she told herself that working overseas was not for her. For the fifth and last time, she again attended a scheduled interview in Manila for another batch of prospective employers and she told herself that it will be the last because if she again fails to get an employer then she will call it game over for the said work overseas.
“I and my fellow trainees were interviewed by prospective employers during that time. We were all called back to the room where the interview was conducted for the announcement of those who will be selected. I did not expect much that time because of my first four experiences. The first batch of employers called out the names of those whom they selected and it so happened that they belong to my batchmates in the Nihongo training in Sabangan. I remained calm when our turn came and to my surprise, it was my name that was first announced. I was really overjoyed and had mixed emotions at that time,” Aimee stipulated.
Aimee is one of the recipients of the Joins us for Progress: Jobs, Jobs, jobs program of the Dominguez family that already facilitated the deployment of dozens of OFWs to various companies in Japan for gainful employment.
The JUP: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs program of the Dominguez family is being implemented in partnership with the Manila-based Philippine Human Resource Global Information Center (PHGIC) and the Bulacan-based Sage Asian language Center.
Under the said program, qualified and selected individuals will be given a 3-year special training visa that could be extended up to five years at the choice of the beneficiary and even up to ten years depending on their performance in their work.
Aimee is now in the company of Venus Lagomen of Bantey, Tadian, Mountain Province in the same company as a farm worker in the tea farm of their employer.
“Our work is considered to be difficult but we have to bear with it because we went here to work, nothing more. We have learned a lot from doing farm work in Japan compared to farm work in our country. We will surely treasure this experience,” Aimee quipped.
She claimed that it was difficult for them to adjust when they started working but the presence of supportive fellow OFWs gave them the strength to hurdle the challenges of the work and being away from their families. The work assigned to them is the first stage of the process where the harvested tea leaves will have to be boiled, dried and eventually packed properly. When there is no available work inside, they help in the outside work which is planting, weeding, fertilizing and harvesting the good quality tea leaves from the farm.
Aimee expressed her family’ gratitude to the Dominguez family for the free Nihongo language training that opened the opportunities for them to have gainful employment in Japan, saying that it is a rear opportunity that people should take advantage of or else they will lose the chances of being able to move their family out from the shackles of poverty.
She also hopes that her story will help in inspiring people that poverty should not be an excuse in the failure to achieve the dreams and aspirations of people but it should serve as an inspiration and motivation for them to continue striving for the best and time will tell one’s future in the world that is filled with grueling challenges that people need to overcome or else they will remain stagnant forever.
Aimee called on her fellow beneficiaries of the program to stick with their employers during the duration of the contract and to behave so as not to destroy the image of their benefactors, the agency that facilitated their being employed in Japan and the whole province so that more deserving workers from the different parts of Mountain Province will be able to benefit from the noble initiative.
“We should not only think of ourselves but also those who will be following our footsteps and who are qualified to work abroad because it is a rare opportunity that we are given the chance to undergo the language training for free apart from other support that we benefitted from,” she exclaimed. By Dexter A. See