A Heart for OFWs

A sector that Bangko Kabayan (BK), a Filipino Rural bank, has chosen to address is the growing number of Filipino migrants abroad, better known as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Today many financial institutions offer services to attract this market by offering products that simply make remittances to families back home either faster or cheaper. BK felt responding to a more urgent need of every OFW, that is, financial stability, in order to come home and secure a better future for their family. Alexandra Ganzon, who herself saw the struggles of OFWs during her work abroad, shares her firsthand experience on how to address this sector in Philippine society.

My own personal journey in choosing the EoC came about when I went to Italy with the specific idea of specializing in fashion to be able to promote Philippine creativity in Italy. In January 2005, I took up my Masters in Fashion Merchandising and Marketing in Florence.

Fortunately, I got an internship soon afterwards. One of the most important brands in the global textile industry offered me an opportunity. In spite of all the difficulties and bureaucracy involved in hiring a non-European citizen, my internship was then transformed into a job. No less than the owner himself, Mr. Nino Cerruti – one of the most famous Italian stylists in the world – came to trust me from the start, and saw to it that my documents were processed.

Gratefully, I dedicated myself 100% to my work and tried to be open to the different challenges of the workplace. Through the years my efforts were appreciated. In the same year that the company applied for the Cassa Integrazione (reduced working hours to cope with the financial crisis), they gave me a permanent contract.

Although I had now attained a certain stability, I still felt awkward every time I met fellow Filipinos, who were in an altogether different situation from mine. I had gotten to know several other Filipinos in our community, most of whom worked as domestic helpers. Coming to know their stories and their struggles, I could not remain indifferent.

Each time I returned to the Philippines for vacation, I would talk to my family about the tragic plight of the OFWs. Then we started exploring the idea of Bangko Kabayan reaching out to them and creating innovative services for them. Among the biggest challenges immediately before us was the fact that rural banks, by Philippine law, are not allowed to expand outside the country. Still, this did not stop us from pursuing the project.

Back in Italy, I shared this idea with Alberto Frassinetti, who has a consultancy firm called GM&P, which is part of the EoC. We started to draft a business plan to define the project. Once ready, we approached Banca Etica – Italy's first ethical bank, which encourages socio-economic initiatives in the field of sustainable human and social development – to find out if they would be interested to take part in the initiative. We chose Banca Etica because ours was not a project of “traditional banking” but an attempt to respond to the needs of the immigrants, and therefore, a project of assistance and solidarity.

Today, about 10% of the Philippine population works abroad. In Italy, OFWs number about 120,000. Just like other immigrants, OFWs go with the hopes of earning more to provide a better future for their families. Unfortunately, their families at home are unaware of the OFWs’ difficulties and the struggles they overcome to earn the money sent home. Family members who remain home eventually become too dependent on the remittances that they receive monthly.

To emphasize how significant remittances are for the Philippines, they now represent about 10% of our Gross National Product (GNP). In the end, OFWs who spend 10-15 years of their productive lives abroad, have problems when they return home because they have no savings in Italy, where sometimes they have even become indebted to others, nor have their families in the Philippines saved for them.

Bangko Kabayan would like to recognize and respect the desire of OFWs to work abroad for a definite period of time, and eventually return home with the prospect of a better future. Yet this is only possible through better education (or re-education) of their family members about the value of money and the discipline of saving in order to help them break the cycle of dependence on foreign remittances. This means that a major part of the solution would entail, first of all, engaging family members in financial literacy.

Our desire is to help OFWs save for their retirement and encourage them to make small investments in the Philippines, for example through microcredit, which will allow them to actively participate in the development of the province they belong to.

A year after our meeting with Banca Etica, I decided to resign from my job to concentrate on this project full time. Having taken concrete steps to become more involved with various communities, gotten to know the leaders, and undergone training as a financial literacy counselor, now I conduct seminars to help OFWs understand the importance of planning for their future.

To be quite honest, this is a daily challenge for me. It is not at all easy to try and do business, especially in a foreign country. When I wake up each morning, I no longer have that fixed routine of an 8 to 5 job. Neither do I have the certainty of an income by month’s end. I have to constantly reaffirm my choice and this requires an absolute commitment. While the direct benefits to BK will may not be immediately apparent, some OFWs now turn to me for major life decisions, like whether or not they should uproot their children to join them in Italy. We will continue our work, sowing the seeds of a better future, even if we might not be around for the harvest.

Alexandra Ganzonhttp:
//www.bangkokabayan.com/