OFWs learn new skills through Kapit-Bisig

JEDDAH: It’s never too late to learn new skills.
That’s what Nestor B. Cala, 60, has in mind as he prepares for his eventual retirement as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and return home “for good”.
Cala said he had done house maintenance work in Jeddah for the past 20 years now feels that his body “is not the same as it was before, when I was still young.” But for him, age should not be a hindrance for one to continue to be productive in life.
“When I retire, I intend to put up a massage therapy clinic at home in Davao (southern Philippines,” he said.
Cala was one of the graduates of the recently completed Skills Enhancement Program of the Kapit-Bisig OFW Jeddah Chapter, a community group organized in 2003 to provide livelihood training for Filipino workers.
Jeffrey Sales Estrada, Kapit-Bisig president, said 35 participants completed the courses they enrolled in, including massage therapy, hair and beauty culture, fashion design, dressmaking, and fashion design. Among the graduates were housemaids and various blue collar workers.
During the commencement exercises at La Parilla Restaurant on Sept. 11, guest speaker Venecio Vano Legaspi of of the OFW Council of Leaders encouraged the graduates “to use their newly acquired skills as pillars in building a better future business and employment.”
Jennifer Piamonte, one of the graduates from the massage therapy program said, she is hoping to do precisely that. “I am happy to learn this new skills because this will give me extra income for my family,” she said.
Kapit-Bisig founding president Paraluman Atienza, now adviser of the group, said more than 350 OFWs have graduated from the group’s training program since it started since 2003. Among the participants were housemaids, waiters, waitresses, hotel staff workers, beauty salon workers, and even some nurses.
She said some of their alumni are now working in Canada, the United States and European countries and some are now successful with their own businesses in the Philippines.