Riches and success are not only found by having an overseas job or by finding work abroad. Many overseas Filipino workers (OFW) realize it after coming home for good and starting their own business. Sometimes you can be rich by simply doing it in your own backyard. Just like what happened to a former OFW in Taiwan who was laid off from his work as a welder and forced to come home. Little did he know that it is the very last time that he will be working outside the country. Now, he is earning 27,500 per month just by farming mushroom. His overseas job was replaced with a sustainable livelihood and a better income without the need to look for an overseas job and leave his family behind again.
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Freddie Usita, 50, returned to his hometown in Piddig, Ilocos Norte and set up a small quail production business and a backyard mushroom production business.
After he failed from his former mushroom farming business which he attributed to lack of proper knowledge, he decide to enroll himself in the Marcos Agro-Industrial School under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
After he graduated from the said school, Usita decided to re-establish his oyster white mushroom and the oyster gray mushroom production, this time, it was a success.
The former laid-off OFW now owns Usita Mushroom Farm in Ilocos Norte which supplies mushroom to their neighboring provinces like Ilocos Sur and Cagayan.
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Aside from growing mushroom, he also ventured out in the production of mushroom fruiting bags.
with his earning, Usita was able to purchase an agricultural land and a vehicle for his business. He is also able to send his youngest child to school while his eldest finished in a reputable school in Ilocos Norte. Now he is able to set aside a portion of his income as savings, which he cannot do while working abroad.
Due to his success, Usita received 2016 Idols ng TESDA for Region 1 and was one of the nominees of the award in the national level.
“We have a lot of opportunities in our country, however, we only need to be more creative coupled with more patience and perseverance,” Usita said.
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Mushroom farming is now becoming popular in the Philippines and other neighboring countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Since we are in a tropical country with plenty of lands suitable for farming, it can be the future crop that will enable us to bounce back in life just like OFW Freddie Usita.
Filed under overseas job, work abroad, overseas Filipino workers, Taiwan, farming, mushroom, livelihood, Read More:
The common goal of most Filipinos who travel and work abroad is to provide a better future for their family. They often disregard leaving their loved ones behind for the sake of better monthly pay provided by their overseas jobs, but of course, it costs a lot in different aspects.
True enough there are overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who succeeded in their chosen path but it is not a guarantee that everyone who will choose the same will harvest the similar result. Sad to say, there are many OFWs who return back to the Philippines as broke as before or even worse.
According to statistics, there are around 10 million OFWs in the world located in 170 countries, with over a million in Saudi Arabia alone, followed by Japan, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan and still growing.
OFWs are most vulnerable to problems which include the usual news menu of abuse and maltreatment we read almost every day.
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High placement fees
OFWs in their willingness and great enthusiasm to go abroad, they will produce money and pay for whatever their recruitment agencies ask. Some of them are deeply indebted and has sold their properties and valuables due to high placement fees dictated by the recruiters.
Employer maltreatment and abuse
Maltreatment and abuse are common to the OFWs who are working as household service workers. Some OFWs are luckily get rescued but for some OFWs who came home inside a wooden box, it is very tragic.
Broken families due to an extra-marital affair
The culprit that many people blame why they had extramarital affair abroad is homesickness and they are fighting it the wrong way. Miscommunication can also be a factor. Nevertheless, the results are very destructive to the family.
You can avoid this by maintaining consistent and meaningful conversations with your spouse and children even when you are far.
Culture shock
For an OFW who had been deployed in an unfamiliar territory with diverse culture, many OFWs suffer culture shock. The things you can normally do in the Philippines might not be right in your host country. The language barrier is also a problem but not for long. Filipinos can easily overcome such problems due to our ability to adapt and adjust to our environment. Eventually, we can feel at home over the course of our contract in the country we are at.
Scams
OFWs are often the target of scammers given the notion that OFWs are rich. Some OFWs who wanted to have a way to earn more through investments are being victimized by related scams like pyramiding and multi-level networking scams. Some others are getting blackmailed and extorted online with a threat to expose their private videos or photos they willingly made out of extreme boredom. There are also others who had fallen victim to people they knew online and they easily trusted without knowing about their true evil intentions.
Contract switching
Have you experienced being asked to sign another contract which offers less salary than what you have signed before your deployment? This is a common practice among recruiters and employers. Aside from smaller pay, they will cut off your privileges such as overtime pay, weekly day-off among others and you cannot do anything about it especially if you are illegally deployed by un-accredited recruiters.
Being unable to save
When an OFW received their salary, it often slip-off their hands and will not stay for even a day. They will head straight to the remittance center and leave a small amount for them and send all the remaining to their family back home. Not that they do not realize the value of saving, it's just that they find it difficult to do so. The sad truth is that many OFWs even caught in neck-deep debts and coming home broke after years of working overseas.
Homesickness
This happens not only to newbie OFWs but even for those who had been traveling and working back and forth overseas. To think that there are many ways to communicate with our family through modern technology, we still long for the physical presence of the person or things we miss.
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Being jailed for offenses they did not commit
It is a sad story that not all inside the foreign penitentiaries are guilty. Many of them are behind bars due to conviction on crimes they do not commit.
Illegal Recruitment
Due to lack of knowledge and proper information and failure to consult with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), many OFWs fall prey to illegal recruiters.
Plunging value of the Philippine Peso
Lately, the value of Philippine peso seems to dive. Next, to the salary, the second most important thing for the OFWs to know is how much is the current exchange rate. If the exchange rate is down, you can see it on the face of the OFW. It could be positive because the value of the money they will receive may be higher. However, it means higher prices of commodities and even though the value becomes higher, it will definitely not enough to meet their needs. That is why it pays to learn how to invest properly and grow a profitable side business. This ensures you of a passive income that you can count on whenever the country’s economy adversely affects your household income.
Getting caught in political and natural disasters abroad
Political unrest or natural disaster is inevitable and out of our control. However, if the OFW is wise enough and saved for their future, the effects of these sort of problems could be minimal to none.
The reason may be either the OFW is deployed in a remote area or the Philippine embassy in his country has limited manpower and so they are unable to attend to all OFWs seeking assistance.
Family problems back home
An OFW may experience such problems and the burden even grows heavy with the thought that you were not there to address the problem personally.
OFWs, because they are not present physically, they entrust their hard-earned money to their relatives or spouses in good faith that it will be invested properly and used wisely. But due to lack of research and proper business planning, investments fail.
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There may be more problems that the OFWs encounter that are not mentioned here. However, these are not enough to keep Filipinos from seeking employment opportunities abroad. .
Filed under abuse and maltreatment, filipinos, Hong Kong, Japan, ofw, overseas Filipino workers, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, Travel, Work Abroad,
Taiwan on Thursday announced that its trial visa exemption for Filipinos has been extended for another year. Visa-free entry for Filipinos will continue until July 31, 2019. a statement by the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) indicated that the visa-free policy will be reviewed for a possible further extension beyond the one-year extension. Taiwan first enforced its visa-free policy for the Philippines on Nov. 1, 2017.
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"This visa-free privilege is a reflection of Taiwan’s goodwill and friendship towards all Filipinos under the 'New Southbound Policy' which aims to build stronger bilateral relations and closer people-to-people connectivity between Taiwan and the Philippines," said Michael Peiyung Hsu, Taiwan’s Representative to the Philippines. Manila and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties owing to the One-China Policy. Taiwan has no embassy in Manila and is instead represented by TECO, which acts as its de-facto embassy in the country.
Taiwan is a self-ruling democratic island which separated from mainland China in 1949.
The following requirements are required to avail of the free-entry visa to Taiwan:
1. A regular passport with a remaining six (6) months validity from the date of entry.
2. A return ticket or a ticket for the traveler's next destination and a visa for that destination if it is required.
3. No criminal record in Taiwan.
4. A proof of accommodation, such as hotel booking or host/sponsor’s contact information /or arrangements of tour, travel, visit, events and meeting.
Visa applications are filed at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines
Those who intend to stay in Taiwan for more than 14 days or for the purpose of study, work, missionary, employment and other gainful activities are still required to obtain appropriate visas before entering Taiwan.
The number of two-way visitors hit a record high in 2017 wherein Filipino travelers going to Taiwan reached 290,784 while Taiwanese visitors to the Philippines reached 236,777.
Among the many place to visit in Taiwan include the the National Palace Museum, the best-known Shilin Night Market to Tainan Flowers Night Market, the gargantuan Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Puli Town, the Taipei101, and the many national parks, forest or state reserves.
Taiwan also have a nationwide free Wi-Fi internet that rolled out in 2011, allowing residents to log on to the island's network, ITaiwan, at thousands of hotspots.
The visa-free travel program for travelers to Taiwan from neighboring Asian countries like Philippines, Thailand, and Brunei will be extended until July 2019.
Taiwan started a trial one-year visa-free travel regime for visitors from Thailand and Brunei in August 2016. Filipino tourists were added to the program last November for an initial trial period of nine months.
However, with the new extensions, the number of days travelers from Thailand and Brunei for visiting Taiwan visa-free is reduced from 30 days to 14 days, just the same as that of travelers from the Philippines currently enjoy.
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The visa-free program is part of the government's effort to increase the number of tourists from countries included in its "New Southbound Policy" covering the 10 Southeast Asian countries, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Its purpose is to is aimed to offset a significant slump in tourists from mainland China since 2016 when President Tsai Ying-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took office.
Since Taiwan started giving free entry visa for the 18 "Southbound" countries in August 2016, the number of visitors from those countries has significantly risen.
Statistics show that visitors from the Philipines reached to about 290,000 visitors last year, higher than 172,000 the previous year. The number of visitors from Thailand last year was more than 292,000, from 195,000 in 2017.
Malaysians and Singaporeans already enjoy full 30-day visa-free entry to Taiwan, while New Zealanders enjoy full 90-day visa-free entry and Australians enjoy the same on a trial basis until Dec. 31. Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) said there are some 150,000 Filipinos working in Taiwan, mostly in the manufacturing and fisheries sector.
Planning a vacation abroad? Taiwan is calling you. Starting November 1, 2017, Filipinos may now travel to Taiwan visa-free until July 31, 2018!
This good news is announced by Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines.
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Who can visit Taiwan visa-free?
Filipinos who would like to stay up to 14 days for tourism activities, business, visiting relatives, attending functions or events. They can enjoy visa-free entry from November 1 to July 31, next year.
TECO clarified that those who intend to stay in Taiwan for more than 14 days or for the purpose of the study, work, missionary, employment and other gainful activities are still required to obtain appropriate visas before entering Taiwan. Read: 10 reasons for OFW to choose Taiwan as next work destination
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In TECO's statement, it reads "This visa-free initiative shall undergo a 9-month trial period until July 31, 2018, as part of Taiwan’s goodwill and efforts of the 'New Southbound Policy' to build closer people-to-people exchange of visits," Requirements for visa-free entries are as follows:
1. An ordinary/regular passport with remaining validity of at least six months from the date of entry (Diplomatic & official passport holders are not eligible for visa-free treatment) ;
2. A return ticket or a ticket for the traveler's next destination and a visa for that destination if it is required;
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3. No criminal record in Taiwan;
4. A proof of accommodation (hotel) booking or host/sponsor’s contact information /or arrangements of tour, travel, visit, events and meeting etc.
TECO clarified that diplomatic and official passport holders are eligible for visa-free treatment.
