31 March 2014 – The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur celebrated Women’s Month with the female wards at the Embassy’s Migrant Workers and Other Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC) in an activity held on March 27 at the MWOFRC grounds.
Present during the event were Embassy Chargé d'affaires (CDA) Medardo Macaraig, Third Secretaries and Vice Consuls Johann Veronica Andal and Francis Herrera, Labor Attaché Elizabeth Estrada, Assistant Labor Attaché Nelia Olivera, Welfare Officer Gloria Taule, Social Welfare Attaché Sitti and other female Embassy and staff.
In her opening remarks, newly-arrived Labor Attaché Elizabeth Estrada highlighted the importance of women in nation-building and thanked Post’s officers and staff for deciding to celebrate Women’s Month with the female wards.
“We hope that the knowledge imparted through the videos would empower them to venture into business when they return to the Philippines,” she said.
For his part, CDA Macaraig said that the videos aim to give them more options on how they could spend their hard-earned money from working overseas.
“There is a need to have more entrepreneurs in the country to not just spur job creation and economic growth, but also a chance for employment of other Filipinos, so they need not leave their families to earn money overseas,” he said.
The activity involved a film showing on financial management, a program featuring the MWOFRC wards, a salo-salo among the Embassy’s female officers and staff and the wards and turnover of supplies such as toiletries and clothes for use of the wards.
The financial management video is from the Technology and Livelihood Resources Center and covers topics on financial management and starting a business. It also includes ways on how to secure capital and on possible businesses to venture in.
Kuala Lumpur’s MWOFRC is one of the few centers which functions more as a skills training center than a halfway house for distressed Filipinos. The MWOFRC reputedly offers the most comprehensive range of skill courses on a yearly basis.
The Embassy’s MWOFRC is housed in a six-room building, with a floor area of 370 square meters situated in a 650-meter property. There are also three modular classrooms for different training courses constructed outside the main building. END
