Filipino Harvard graduate honors mother, other OFWs through award-winning thesis --- By GMA Integrated News

A Filipino student at Harvard University paid tribute to his mom and her fellow Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) through his thesis. According to Mark Salazar's report on "24 Oras," Wednesday, Jeromel Dela Rosa and his mother migrated to the United States back in 2011 in hopes of finding a better way of living. However, life didn't get better instantly when they moved to the country. "Ang trabaho po ng nanay ko po ay 'yung taga-bihis po ng pasyente, taga-linis po ng kubeta ng pasyente. [Kapag] nagkaroon ng mess sa kama, siya po ang maglilinis nun," he said. In 2021, his mother was diagnosed with a heart disease, forcing her to stop working. Through financial aid, Jeromel was able to continue his studies at Harvard. This moved Jeromel to use his life experiences as inspiration for his thesis. He studied the situation of OFWs in Jordan, which has a kafala system. "In the kafala system the employer has the full authority over migrant workers who at anytime can summarily sponsor, deport or transfer migrant workers," he said. "Migrant workers are just expected to do their job if they cant do it they can come back to where they came from." Jeromel is among the 74 out of 1,700 graduates who were given a special award for this study. —Carby Basina/MGP, GMA Integrated News

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