To provide for their loved ones, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) spend years working abroad. Birthdays, graduations, celebrations, anniversaries are missed. A Philam Life survey showed that OFWs would only come home if they have enough savings, or if their long term goals have been achieved (a house, a business, children sent to college). But most OFWs investments are limited to savings, properties, cars, and jewelleries. Philam Life’s Balikbayani financial literacy program wants to show our OFWs that there are other instruments that can secure their long term goals, so that they can come home earlier and spend more time with their families.
Left to right: Jaime Jose Javier, Jr. (Chief Marketing Officer, Philam Life) and Cary C. Casipit (Philam Life Director of Agencies).
An OFW thinks of savings, according to a Philam Life study, as predominantly for emergencies; a resource to tap in case they get sick, lose their jobs, or when their families are affected by calamities. The same study shows us that, if an OFW wants to save up P3 million so he can come home for good, he would need 18 years to do so, assuming he can save up the equivalent of P14,000 monthly.
18 years abroad, away from your family, is a long time.
The Philam Life Balikbayani program aims to shorten the time OFWs spend overseas. Through the program, OFWs will learn the basics of insurance and financial management, and create personal financial plans. They will get also continuous advice and guidance for free, through Philam Life’s trained Kabalikat financial advisors.
Along with the launch of the Balikbayani financial literacy program, Philam Life also produced a video that captures both sides of an OFW family’s plight – the OFWs who are willing to endure time away abroad for financial stability, and the children who are left back home, growing up missing their parents. Watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPs1mS3lqh8
The video tugs at your heart: while pasalubong are always appreciated, there is nothing like the presence of family, at home.
“OFWs have sacrificed a lot of time away from their children. We want to make all those years of labor count,” said Cary C. Casipit, Philam Life Director of Agencies.
More info on the Philam Life Balikbayani program can be found here.
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