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Pinoy Abroad
Some Pinoy families miles apart on 'Filipino Family Day' Sept. 24
By Lucky Mae Fornoles Quilao
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates— As some 10 million Filipinos are residing or working abroad, many Filipino families are continents apart on "Filipino Family Day" every fourth Monday of September. According to Stock Estimate of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, some 9,452,984 Filipinos were based abroad as of 2010. Presidential Proclamation 1895 declared every fourth Monday of September as “Filipino Family Day.”
The Filipino Family Day or the “Salu-salo ng Pamilya Mahalaga Day” was mandated to keep “the sanctity of family life and protect and strengthen the family as the basic social unit.” Roy Gayoso Targa, 56, a Filipino mechanical engineer at the Scientific Center for
Racing Camels in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) told GMA News Online in an email that he tries to keep in touch with his family through video conferencing.
“I used to take advantage of modern technology so my family and I can be together. We also pray together through video conferencing.”
Targa was still a bachelor when he came to the UAE in 1989.
Currently, he has been away from his family for three years.
“The challenge is always there and the only thing that we can do is to pray to the Almighty God that He will guide and bless us,” Targa said.
“We are looking forward, however, to the time when we have to stay for good back home in the Philippines,” he added.
Staying together
Meanwhile, another couple in the UAE did their best to stay together and sacrifice a lot as they worked away from the Philippines. Edgardo Hermosando, 38, and a data entry operator at the NMC Specialty Hospital, told GMA News Online that he did not allow his wife, Arlyn, to resume working abroad unless he could follow “immediately.”
“We started out staying in an old room with only a rice cooker and a small altar with the image of our Lord and our Mother Mary," Edgardo said. "We had to put an old wooden door over a mattress so that our backs won’t be
exposed to the cold floor every time we sleep at night,” he added.
He said it helped them to become active in a religious community in the UAE
“We had tried to become parents right after our marriage, but decided not to burden ourselves too much. Our plan is that if couldn’t have a child naturally, we would just adopt someone else’s child,” Edgardo said.
“But God’s plan is better. He has blessed us with a son after the fourth year of our marriage. We were so happy that we named him Elijah that means “The Lord is God.” - VVP, GMA News
Tags: unitedarabemirates, pinoysinuae
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