SUPER MAIDS!!!!! Tatata-tata-tata
http://globalnation.inq7.net/news/ne...ticle_id=13304
Arroyo: Philippines to send ‘super maids’ abroad soon
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQ7.net
Last updated 06:28pm (Mla time) 08/03/2006
THEY can administer first aid, attend to emergency procedures such as evacuation when there is a fire, can speak the language of the country of employment, aside from performing the usual chores of housekeeping and cooking.
Welcome: The "super maids."
Faced with the problem of unemployment from about 30,000 Filipinos who are expected to return to the country from Lebanon, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the government had put in place livelihood opportunities and training program to upgrade the skills of Filipinos going abroad to work as domestic helpers.
Arroyo said with this training, the country would be able to deploy abroad not just ordinary domestic helpers but "super maids."
"Yes, mga super maids and papadala natin [Yes, we will be sending super maids]," Arroyo said in Malacañang Thursday during a round table discussion on job and livelihood opportunities, especially for the repatriated workers from Lebanon.
With Arroyo were Labor Secretary Arturo Brion, Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Marianito Roque, Arthur Yap, Presidential Management Staff chief and adviser for jobs creation, Augusto Syjuco, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral, and Lina Amata, National Livelihood Support Fund executive director.
At the same time, Arroyo reiterated the country's ban on deployment of workers to dangerous countries such as Iraq and Lebanon.
She said she also wanted "selective deployment" of workers to ensure that they would land jobs with good working conditions abroad.
With their upgraded skills, Arroyo said domestic helpers could now command higher salaries from their foreign employers.
"Magaling sila at papasok sa tahanan na mataas ang sweldong binibigay sa kanila [They are good and they will be employed in homes, which will give them higher salaries]," she added.
The OWWA will open a program that will allow domestic helpers to undergo country-specific language and culture training, Roque said.
Syjuco said the workers would be trained on how to administer first aid, handle emergency cases such as evacuation when there is a fire, aside from their usual chores of housekeeping and cooking.
TESDA-certified workers will be issued certificates of competency, Syjuco added.
Brion said embassy officials and labor attaches in Amman, Jordan and Bahrain were making arrangements so that some of the workers moving out Lebanon could be employed in these two countries.
About 90 percent of the 30,000 Filipinos are expected to return from Lebanon.
Some of the returning workers from Lebanon have narrated their sad tales under their employers, including being made to sleep in a little room with dogs, eating leftovers, and working until midnight so that they could earn 200 dollars a month to send to their families in the Philippines
Some also narrated experiences of being hit by their employers when they answer back.
Many domestic workers across the world endure conditions similar to slavery -- from physical and psychological abuse to working months without pay and being locked up, the Human Rights Watch said.
The New York-based group called on governments to make sure that workers received the same legal protection as other employees and to hold their bosses and labor agents accountable for the abuses.
Correct me if Im wrong but I think Gloria Arroyo is clearly a HUGE Superman fan....
Well you can call them fancy names like Super Maid, Batmaid, Wondermaid, Wolvemaid..... But in the end we all know they will just end up as Super Slaves... Not to mock them but there is something clearly wrong when the government is "proud' (to the point of giving fancy names) of sending its constituents to other countries to become virtual slaves... Is this a sign that the government is giving up? Are we in such a hopeless state that our only solution to returning domestic helpers is to retrain them and send them back to become what they were once were? .... I hope not... I am not generalizing that all DH are physically abused cause some employers are kind but the fact that most of them receive such low pay for such hard work is already abuse and modern day slavery....
To say that by becoming Super Maids, our DH can command higher salaries and respect is rather silly.... Their employers will simply demand for those cheap but still effective "Non Super Maids"....
After Super Regions, May I introduce.....
she was right when she said.."we are SUFFERING under the same government".
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