Kind-hearted souls send home 3 distressed OFWs from Bahrain

Three distressed Filipino household helpers in Bahrain have flown home through the help of some Filipino staff members at the American Mission Hospital (AMH).

Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News reported Wednesday that Tonisa Dimalen, Eleanor Villoso and Myrna Reyes had flown home after staying in a shelter run by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Dimalen suffers from a heart ailment, Villoso from high blood pressure and Reyes had allegedly been abused by her Bahraini sponsor.

Because of lack of money for their journey back to the Philippines, the three stayed at the OWWA shelter together with other distressed Filipino workers.

According to the GDN, Filipino staffers at the AMH went caroling last Christmas to raise money for the airfare of the three.

AMH financial controller Virgilio S. Villagracia and his team had sought the help of the Philippine embassy to identify the most distressed of the domestic helpers at the OWWA shelter.

The GDN quoted Villagracia as saying: "There are many maids sheltered at OWWA, but we selected the three as their legal formalities were already completed by the Philippine embassy. We specifically chose them as they had the “out-passes" to leave Bahrain under the general amnesty (program)."

Through caroling, AMH staffers doctor Dennis Braga, Peter Allan Carrana, Joseph Anthony Pidal, Josephine A Tauro, Aida Rivera, Carmen Londob, Roel Salazar, Novi Ligdao, Benjamin P Diaz, Fe Amour Abonis and Villagracia were able to raise BD500 (P54, 378) which they used to buy plane tickets. The team also donated BD33.340 (P3, 600).

The tickets and cash were presented to labor attaché Alicia Lim at the OWWA office in Zinj.

Lim told the GDN that more than 110 maids were sheltered at the OWWA office and 45 had been repatriated under Bahrain’s amnesty program for illegal workers.

Bahraini government declared a five-month amnesty to thousands of foreign workers, including Filipinos, who slipped into the state on visit visas and stayed on illegally. The amnesty period began in August and ended on December 31, 2007.

The AMH was established when American missionaries began itinerant medical work in Bahrain in 1893 and built the hospital that was completed in 1902. - Luis Gorgonio, GMANews.TV

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