AKO-OFW PARTYLIST NEEDED IN CONGRESS
/ 14 March 2022
Banner art by Divine Grace Espina
I bet each one of us has already heard our parents say that education is the only inheritance that they can give their children.
Maybe to some, education isn’t the key to success, but the knowledge and wisdom that we acquire through quality education help develop the talent and creativity of individuals in an effective manner.
This is why the Advocates & Keepers Organization of OFW Inc., or AKO-OFW, one of the hundreds of party-list organizations running for a seat in the 2022 National and Local Elections, is pushing to further accessibility of education.
Number 10 in the ballot, AKO-OFW may have been only established in 2015 but it has already helped numerous dependents of OFWs get scholarship grants from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration or OWWA, an attached agency tasked to look after the welfare of our overseas workers, under the newly created Department of Migrant Workers.
Last week, I was fortunate to have a quick chat with its founder, Dr. Chie Umandap, who said that scholarship grants should not be limited only to intellectual OFW dependents, but must be accessible to everyone.
This is why if given the chance to represent the OFWs at the lower house, AKO-OFW will actively push for the expansion of qualifications for scholarship programs to ensure that all OFW dependents are given equal access.
It will also advocate more tie-ups between OWWA and government agencies so that OFW dependents can have more scholarship options to choose from.
Apart from scholarship assistance, AKO-OFW also has a portfolio of programs and initiatives such as the OFW pension plan, Pabahay program, and OFW Reemployment program, all for the benefit of our migrant workers.
Our OFWs not only give their families a brighter future, but we owe them for the billions of cash remittances which greatly contribute to economic development.
To vote for a party-list such as AKO-OFW that would represent them and ensure their welfare and their family’s is like our gratitude to them, while showing that they are taken care of despite them away from home.
