Award honours 5 Filipino expats in the UAE as heroes

Gulf News

The Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will be recognised at the “Bayanihan” event in Dubai for their service to humanity

Transcript

00:00For me, it's like a sort of a recognition for the community that I come from.

00:29for the community services that I have basically extended to the community,

00:33not only here in UAE, but also back in the country as well.

00:37I have basically two advocacy.

00:39The first one is this, the breast cancer advocacy,

00:41and the other one is the environmental advocacy as well.

00:44Now, these environmental advocacies all started when I was doing my research paper for my master's degree,

00:50in which I was able to write an ecotourism paper back in my hometown in General Santos City.

00:56And gladly, I would say that it has been recognized by the government,

00:59and now it is a developed ecotourism destination for Southern Mindanao,

01:06and for the whole country as well.

01:08What made me decide to go more into the environmental, how do you call this, advocacy?

01:15It is simply because I believe more on loving the mother nature,

01:21that we all people basically have the responsibility to take care of the mother nature.

01:27This is our home. We only have one home.

01:30And if we don't take care of our mother earth, then where will we go?

01:39I'm an advocate of sustainability and social entrepreneurship,

01:43and right now, I'm actually the chairman of the Tineo LSE program,

01:48which gives trainings on social entrepreneurship,

01:52where we advocate not just the search for profit, but also the planet,

01:56how do you protect the planet, how do you take care of the people as well.

02:00So at the same time, to give back, I also do some charity organizations.

02:05I founded some charity organizations, like I have this iFund,

02:09where we give seed money to start-up entrepreneurs who are graduates of Tineo LSE,

02:14and we give away, for example, slippers and shoes in my Pak Charity Organization.

02:19So these are the things that I do in a small way to contribute to the Philippine community as well.

02:24I always believe that if you are passionate about something,

02:27you will withstand pressure and all the stress,

02:33because you are passionate about it and you live it out.

02:36So you live it out not just in your household, but in your work, in your career, and also in the community.

02:42So it's all throughout. As long as you love doing it, you still continue doing it.

02:51I will never get tired of helping others,

02:55because as I become successful in my career,

03:04I have to have someone with me to take it with me,

03:09to grow up with me and to have a career that will enhance their understanding about life's social responsibility.

03:21I want to extend my assistance, my help to the underprivileged and underserved Filipinos here.

03:29What's next for me? I will still help others,

03:32and I will do advocacy that involves education,

03:35because I'm working in the school education sector and health and safety and psychosocial.

03:45My advocacy is actually in the Philippines.

03:49I am doing sports here, here in the UAE and outside the UAE.

03:54I am also a triathlete, which is I swim, bike and run and race with a purpose.

04:02And my mission is to help the tribal communities of Palawan Philippines

04:07to have food, healthcare program, medical supplies, sports, education and a lot more.

04:14I said to myself, if I will have a chance to have money and work abroad and have finances,

04:21I will come back to Palawan to help these tribal communities.

04:25My advocacy is related to social enterprise,

04:29and it's all about uplifting the lives of the Filipino community in Dubai.

04:36We are helping the overseas Filipino workers here or the Filipino community here,

04:40and at the same time we are helping the Philippine government there.

04:44So farmers are the beneficiaries of our Adapa Farm program.

04:49So farmers are the beneficiaries of our Adapa Farm program.

04:53We're in the Filipino overseas here, they will adopt a farm,

04:57and then farmers will cultivate, there will be a harvest later on,

05:00and that harvest will be sold in Dubai.

05:04So they are benefiting more on the program.

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