Caregiver academy to ask Tesda team to assess graduates

The trainees listen to Alfredo Palmiery, founder of Concorde International Human Resource Corp. descrube polans for their training programs. With him is Steven Chiu, Hong Kong branch manager of Active Global which organized the training,
 

By Vir B. Lumicao

A Manila employment agency and its partner training academy here are trying to get the Philippines’ Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (Tesda) to come to Hong Kong to assess their caregiver graduates so they can get NCII certificates.

These certificates would place Filipino graduates of a six-month comprehensive training in elderly care better-placed to capture the growing demand for caregivers in Asia, said Alfredo Palmiery, founder of Concorde International Human Resource Corp.

Palmiery was guest speaker at the graduation on Dec 2 of 100 Filipinas who finished the training course offered by his agency’s partner, Active Global Specialised Caregivers (Hong Kong) Pte Ltd.

Steven Chiu, Hong Kong branch manager of Active Global, Labour Attache Jalilo dela Torre, and guest speaker Alfredo Palmiery

The event at the Duke of Windsor Community Hall in Wanchai was also attended by Labor Attache Jalilo dela Torre, who was the guest of honor and speaker.

Labatt Dela Torre congratulated the graduates, telling them that enrolling in skills development such as caregiving is better than joining beauty pageants that debase Filipino women and drive them to debt.

He took a shot at a pageant in a nearby pub in Wanchai two Sundays earlier that he described as commoditizing Filipina helpers. That is not the image that Filipinas should project in Hong Kong, he said.

Meanwhile, Palmiery said affluent Asian countries are fuelling demand for caregivers, thus the need for domestic workers to upgrade their skills to fill the need.

“It’s very important that (the graduates) will be able to get their NC II certificates and we are arranging that the Tesda people will come to Hong Kong to conduct the NCII assessment,” said Palmiery.

“It’s not only foretold that our caregivers will be in great demand in Japan, China, Singapore. Countries around Asia all need caregivers because they want their elderly to be taken care of at home, unlike in the US and Europe where old people are sent to homes for the aged.”

Demand for caregivers, especially in Asia, is bound to grow because the elderly population is growing and more and more families need stay-in caregivers, he said.

Steven Chiu, Hong Kong branch manager of Active Global, said an NCII certificate would be the “holy grail” for Filipina caregivers.

He said Active Global started the course in 2015 for nurses from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines to work as caregivers in Hong Kong.

“This is our ninth batch already, each batch takes about five months to six months, since 2015. We are actually the first to start this course because no other charities or companies are offering comprehensive caregiver training courses on a weekend basis for migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong,” Chiu told The SUN in an interview.

He said Active Global is a nursing employment agency that brings in nurses from the three countries to take care of patients in Hong Kong on domestic worker visa.

He said these workers do not pay agency fee and receive a higher salary than maids.

For domestic helpers in Hong Kong, the company trains them to take care of the elderly. Tuition for the five to six-month, 16-session course is $2,200 payable in two installments.

Chiu said students get a nursing instruction every Sunday, all the materials, uniforms, teaching materials included, as well as the combination of theories and practice and practical lessons where they can learn anywhere from blood pressure taking to taking care of elderly people and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“We are using foreign domestic helper visa because Hong Kong does not grant a caregiver visa, but if it decides later to give a caregiver visa, that will be great,” he said.

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2 Pinay DHs short-listed for human rights arts awards

Maureen Villanueva’s painting “Innocent Hands” 

By The SUN

Gemma Abad’s dress
made out of the ubiquitous
straw bag (also known as “striped
bag” among OFWs).

Entries from two Filipina domestic workers have been short-listed for this year’s Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize 2018 competition whose winners will be known at ceremonies to be held on Dec 8 at The Hive Spring in Aberdeen.

Gemma Abad’s dress made out of the ubiquitous straw bag (“striped bag” among OFWs) and Maureen Villanueva’s painting “Innocent Hands” are among the 23 entries that have been short-listed for the awards, according to HKHRAP director Ms Katie Vadja.

Launched by Justice Centre Hong Kong, the award encourages Hong Kong-based artists to explore local and external humanitarian issues. The 23 entries from 24 artists this year have been selected from over a hundred applicants.

Using mediums ranging from film to neon lights to recyclables, the thought-provoking installations explore topics from migration to sustainability.



The winner of the HKHRAP 2018 will receive a cash prize of $35,000 and a trophy by prominent Hong Kong artist Jaffa Lam.

Two runners-up will also receive cash prizes, and a Directors’ Choice Award will be presented at the exhibition opening.



Previous winners in the arts tilt include Filipina former domestic worker-turned professional photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani for a series of pictures of migrant workers.

Camarines Norte native Abad, who has been working in Hong Kong for the past 11 years, shows the fashion value of the familiar bag.



Her untitled artwork is captioned: “A market bag: ordinary, common, simple and durable transformed into a new form, a new purpose.”

Abad told The SUN she was inspired and encouraged by her employer Kate Sparrow, who is also an artist, to pursue her artistic talent. They collaborated in an exhibit called “Not For Sale” in October.



Villanueva, from Sorsogon, has been working in Hong Kong for six years as domestic helper. Previously, she was a musician in Malaysia and the Philippines but came to Hong Kong after taking up a course as caregiver.

She said her artwork, titled “Innocent hands,” is about rape. The artist said she wanted to emphasize the protection of victims.

Villanueva is a member of Guhit Kulay Hong Kong, a group of Filipino artists, and this, she says, is the first big competition she has joined.

The entries also include “Lie Flat”, an installation by local artist Florence Li that was reportedly inspired by a case study on a maid’s room in a high-end residential estate.

Li’s work questions the standard of living in Hong Kong and what is considered to be adequate living space and conditions.

Tickets to the awards ceremony start at $250, and all proceeds will be donated to Justice Centre Hong Kong. For more information, visit their website: http://www.justicecentre.org.hk/artsprize/

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Book, art exhibits shine spotlight on Bacani’s life as 2nd generation migrant worker

Doing the ribbon cutting to open the exhibit were (l to r)  Xysa's parents Villamor and Georgia, Katherine Louie,
Xyza, Consul General Antonio Morales, curator Melissa Lee and Wanchai DC member Yolanda Ng

By Daisy CL Mandap

Award-winning photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani retraces her steps as a former migrant domestic worker in the book, ‘We Are Like Air” which was launched at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wanchai on Nov. 30.

To put emphasis on how personal the book is, 31-year-old Bacani attended the launch with her parents, Villamor and Georgia Bacani, who she said were attending her first art exhibit together for the first time – and a brother.

Also present was Katherine Louey, Xyza’s former employer, whom she called as “the most important person” and “biggest influence” in her life.

It was Louey, said Bacani, who virtually pushed her out of her house - and Hong Kong - so she would take up the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice fellowship at New York University when it was offered to her in 2015.

After reading about the scholarship offer in a newspaper article, Louey reportedly told Bacani, “You’re fired!” just so the reluctant maid, who had been in her employ for 10 years, would accept the offer.

That short stint in New York City opened many more doors for Bacani so that she now fondly refers to Louey as the one who changed the fortune of “the future generations of the Bacanis.”

Xyza's photos of migrant women in action, captions by her mother Georgia

But the book - and the photos in the accompanying exhibit – tell more the story of Bacani’s mother, Georgia, and the more than 200,000 Filipino women working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong.

Bacani titled the book “We Are Like Air” in reference to migrant domestic workers who she said are important yet are often invisible.

The photos she took provide a glimpse into how migrant workers live- from when they first arrived at their employer’s home, the numerous letters they sent to their family, finding love and raising a family in Hong Kong, to protesting for their rights.

Collage of migrant memorabilias: letter to home, work contracts and visas, family pictures and religious images

Part of the art installation was a narrow bed in a corner above which two shirts are hung, signifying the small space often given to domestic workers in their employer’s home.

A collage of photos on a wall show various migrant workers at work or on their days off, with the description for each written by Georgia, who left home in the 1990s to provide a better life for her husband-farmer and three young children, the eldest of whom is Xyza.

Among about 100 guests who attended the launch were Consul General Antonio A. Morales, representatives from the U.S. consulate, the Wanchai District Council, and the sponsors, WYNG Media Award (WMA).

The book launch and opening of the photo exhibit were the first in a series of activities for Bacani’s new project which she created as part of the WMA Commission in 2016-2017.

On Dec. 2, the domestic workers’ group, Guhit Kulay, hosted an art jam at the Centre, and on Dec. 9, Bacani will hold a book-signing session at the newsstand in front of World Wide House, the favorite go-to place of Filipino migrant workers on their off days.

On Dec. 16, Bacani will be joined in a forum by renowned journalist Sheila Coronel, academic dean of Columbia University’s Journalism School, and one of her mentors in NYC.

Among Bacani’s numerous achievements is having a resolution at the Philippine House of Representatives passed in her honor. She is also one of Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders in 2018, a Pulitzer Prize grantee and an Open Society Moving Walls grantee in 2017. In 2015 she was named among BBC’s 100 Women of the World, and as one of 30 Under 30 Women Photographers in 2016.

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Pinay charged for ‘ice,’ obstruction

A Filipina has been charged in Eastern Court with obstructing Customs officers who searched her bag and found a small amount of the drug “ice” at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry terminal in Sheung Wan.



Three other charges were laid on Nov 26 against Cheryll Salvador, namely, possession of a dangerous drug, possession of equipment fit to inhale a dangerous drug, and possession of tablets classified as Part 1 poison or regulated drug.



The prosecution said Salvador, 33, was in the departure hall on Nov 23 waiting to board a ferry to Macau when she was stopped by Customs officers to check her backpack.
The woman allegedly tried to stop the officers from inspecting her backpack. When the officers eventually managed to check its contents, they allegedly found 0.34 gram of methamphetamine inside.



Also allegedly seized from Salvador was an apparatus intended for the inhalation of  methamphetamine, with a glass tube that had traces of the drug.



In addition, the officers reportedly found five tablets made of the regulated drug.
The prosecution said Salvador had no fixed address and was holding a Philippine passport
Law granted Salvador’s bail application and told her to pay $2,000 to the court, must remain in Hong Kong, surrender her passport, stay in her given address and report to the Wanchai police station everyday between 9am and 6pm daily.

Law adjourned the hearing until Jan 21 and told the Filipina to return on that day.  – Vir B. Lumicao  

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