Health experts, nurses call for policies to curb effects of migration on local health system

LOCAL health experts and nurses are calling for policies and benefit packages that will hopefully contain the effect of the international mobility of Filipino nurses on the country's health situation. Participants at the international gathering on 'Nurses Mobility: A Global Congress' outlined strategies to help develop nursing locally even as the Philippines tries to fill a widening global shortage of these health professionals in developed countries. JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO filed this report for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

Migration part of being a nurse - study

A STUDY by a nursing expert from the University of Santo Tomas showed that nursing was seen as a call to service, a vocation, and an opportunity to work abroad by its practitioners Dr. Irma Bustamante of the UST Graduate School bared these and other findings of her study, titled "Nursing in the Philippines: A Profession?" during the Nurses Global Congress held March 26 to 28 at the Manila Midtown Hotel. JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO filed this report for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

Political parties face challenge of getting the absentee vote

THE Overseas Absentee Voting Law of 2003 allowing Filipinos abroad to exercise their constitutional right of suffrage has become the next big challenge faced not only by migrant organizations that had pushed for the law, but also for political parties who are out to get at those previously untapped votes. Numbering around 7.5 million, overseas Filipinos are touted as the swing-votes that could make or break a political candidate's (and his or her political party's) fate in elections. The opening of a new chapter in the country's political landscape with the entry of Filipinos abroad into the election process, and how political parties and migrant NGOs take up the challenge of getting the absentee vote were the subject the Democracy Forum held recently in Quezon City. ALFRED A. ARAYA, JR. of CyberDyaryo contributes this story for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

Remittances for development

Filipino migrants upgrade cash-strapped Cavite school

A DONATION of a school building and two computers to a public school in Naic, Cavite by overseas Filipinos illustrates the potential of directing remittances by Filipino migrants for development purposes. Already, it is starting to be seen as a means to resuscitate the cash-strapped and depleted Philippine educational system. JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO reports for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more

Migrant workers' convention not a magic solution

BANGKOK-Millions of Asia's migrant workers may have little to celebrate when a U.N. convention upholding their rights comes into force this year, judging from the poor compliance of existing international labour standards, say regional experts. Many welcome the 1990 convention on the rights of migrant workers and their families as a major step, not least because it took 12 years for it - long opposed by labour-receiving countries - to acquire the 20 ratifications it needed to come into force. MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR of the news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) contributes this report for the OFW Journalism Consortium. Read more