Church groups and NGOs promote community counseling

Despite the lingering recession in Japan, a huge number of Filipinos continue to live and work here, spawning a host of problems that the Philippine Embassy and Japanese government agencies are unable to respond to adequately.

Over the years, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have taken an increasingly active role in addressing the problems of overseas Filipinos in Japan.

The Philippine Embassy, which reportedly receives about 1500 calls from Filipinos daily, is only too happy to share with these NGOs the burden of addressing distress calls from Filipinos.

The problems continue to diversify as the profile of Filipino residents changes. Traditionally, labor problems dominated, especially in the bubble economy years, when Japan hosted some 100,000 entertainers annually, and male workers filled the construction sites. As more Filipinas married Japanese, marriage and its concomitant family problems followed suit. Recently, the wave of Japanese descendants (Nikkeijin) and trainees that set foot on Japan also brought new problems.

In view of this, Ugat Foundation, which is active among Filipino migrant workers in 20 countries in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, is stepping up its efforts to make its presence felt in Japan. Recently, it sent a mission to look for its third Bayaning Pilipino from members of Filipino communities here. Two years ago, it chose Elvie Okabe, a community organizer and a psychotherapy trainee at the Urawa Diocese in Saitama Pref. The following year, the foundation, in conjunction with ABS-CBN, chose Andy Farinas, a Filipino worker active in Umeda, Tokyo.

Behind this, Ugat's main agenda is to train counselors on three levels: NGO's or so-called "carers," community leaders and communities themselves. According to Fr. Nilo Tanalega, S.J., project coordinator, Ugat is engaged in family ministry. Its counseling program in Japan was started in 1995. Although its concept of "peer counseling" is taking time to take root in Japan, it plans to continue its program by strengthening its local network.

Because of the unavailability of visa for NGO workers, most counselors who come to Japan have religious visa, and as such are connected with churches. Among these are the Philippine Desk, which is connected with the Yokohama Diocese, and the Open House, which is based in Urawa Diocese. Other groups that offer counseling service to Filipino migrants are the Philippine Pastoral Center, Kapatiran, Catholic Tokyo International Center, and Help, among others.

Fr. William Spicer, a Catholic priest in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Pref., says that there is a need to deal with migrant problems from a bi-cultural perspective. As such, religious and lay missionaries have to understand not only their own language and culture but also that of the host society, especially if the problems are family in nature.

There is a trend towards specialization in counseling among these various groups, and there also exists an informal network for cross-referral among these. Given the diversity of problems, the best way is perhaps training these workers to counsel themselves, as in "peer counseling" which is promoted by Ugat. *