A former OFW who worked for 14 years as a midwife at the Saudi Arabia Naval Base Hospital now earns more than twice her original income as an OFW when she established a modern birthing home in her hometown in General Santos City.
Dolores Batchanicha put to good use the advanced training she received from the British midwives while working in that Naval Base Hospital in Saudi, on top of her previous local midwifery experience at a local hospital in Davao City to make a difference in their province by offering them modern pregnancy-related services.
She received further technical and financial assistance and business skills from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the referral of her colleagues in the Integrated Midwives’ Association of the Philippines (IMAP).
Her modern birthing home facility is a better alternative to the traditional “hilot” or home-assisted birthing by traditional attendants. Established in early 2006 in Calumpang, General Santos City, the modern birthing facility has already earned the accreditation of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and it is also one of the recipients of the PhilHealth Awards for Excellence in Health Services last year 2010.
Dolores Batchanicha was also honored by USAID for such an accomplishment during the celebration of the International Women’s Day held recently. She is not only earning more than twice as much what she used to earn working abroad, but more importantly she is now reunited with her family and regaining those precious moments she missed for the last 14 years.
All these she gained by her humble creativity in making the modern health care for mothers accessible to her local community. May this be an encouragement to our OFWs to save as much money while working abroad, rather than buying all those modern conveniences and excellent food around, and learn as much modern techniques of your trade, and later come home to our beloved beautiful country to put up your own businesses here.
There are a lot of business opportunities awaiting for you here, just identify specific needs of the community, local and foreign, and you will surely reap financial rewards. OFWs can even realize their huge economic influence by grouping together and pooling their resources to come up with several businesses and services like what is being incubated and propounded here, such as:
2) Putting up Retirement Village(s) for foreign retirees, owned and operated by OFWs and the fees shall be in Dollars, Euros, Yen similar to what they pay in their home countries. The facility shall be applied for PEZA (Philippine Export Zone Authority) accreditation being export-oriented services. Tax exemptions can be availed for the first 5 years if this project is accredited with the BOI (Board of Investments) because it is part of the Investment Priority Plan (IPP) of the Government. The IPP for 2011 will be published soon.
This project can also enjoy free marketing and promotion abroad if this is accredited by the PRA (Philippine Retirement Authority) because this is one of the sunrise industries that is being vigorously encouraged by the Philippine Government. These privileges are now being enjoyed by foreign investors, why should not we take advantage of these tax privileges too! In fact, they are now scheduling the first ever Philippine Retirement & Healthcare Summit in collaboration with the Philippine Retirement Authority and the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) and the American, Japanese & Korean Chambers of Commerce in the country.
3) Organize OFWs into several cooperatives to be involved in real estate development where other OFW members will be its own clients, be operated as a cooperative and be accredited under the CDA (Cooperative Development Authority) to enjoy full tax exemption as a cooperative.
Spend some time browsing the government websites through the links provided above to know of the awesome privileges that are open to you being a Filipino businessman. Foreign investors are also enjoying the said privileges.
You may not be able to do it by yourself, unlike Dolores Batchanicha, but we can pool together our talents and resources and become even more competitive. That is what the spirit of EDSA is for.
You will surely earn more than you would think of by simply addressing the needs of our countrymen, because people will always be willing to pay you when you have addressed their needs. And I tell you, the market is so huge, and also the local employment we can generate.
The country needs you!
