Beyond the Live-In Caregiver Program

Beyond the Live-In Caregiver Program

“THE TASSEL’S WORTH THE HASSLE!”

Maricel Nieva, graduate of Food Service Worker course, gets award for Academic Excellence.

By Maru Maesa

Last June, three Filipino migrant women took short courses that they believed could help change their status and gradually realize their aspirations for a better life in Canada.  One of them finished the training program and received the certificate for food service worker (FSW), and the other two, for personal support worker (PSW).

• Maricel Nieva, who hails from Benguet in the Cordillera region, has been in Toronto for some 6 years now. She has a child. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the Benguet State University in northern Philippines.  Before she became a migrant worker in the Middle East, Hongkong and now Canada, she was a private nurse back home.  She finished the Food Service Worker course in June this year and, much to her surprise, was awarded the Certificate for Academic Excellence.  Maricel is a member of a women workers’ organization that is currently running a short story-writing contest. She won first place for a touching and enlightening piece on her life as a migrant.

• Cristy Bagni – woman, mother and migrant from the Cordillera — graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from St Louis University in Baguio. She chose to be a community worker there. Here in Canada, on top of her being a caregiver, she ventured into and completed the Personal Support Worker Certificate Training Program.  Cristy sees this as preparatory to the coming of her child and her husband to Canada, an important step that can aid in the advancement of their economic well-being here in the future.  Cristy is an active member of a Cordillera people’s organization in Toronto.

Maru Maesa and Cristy Bagni, graduates of the Personal Support Worker course at TriCare Academy in Thornhill

• With Maricel and Cristy in their graduation march last June was Maru Maesa. Like Cristy, she earned the certificate for finishing the Personal Support Worker training program, and passed the final exam administered by the National Association of Career Colleges – Personal Support Worker Program.  Passing this exam gets them certified as PSW.  Maru holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management (major in Management) from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and worked as an office clerk for two years in the Philippines before deciding to struggle it out as a domestic helper in Singapore and Hongkong, and as caregiver in Canada since 2009.  She has been an active member of Filipino migrants’ organizations for some 13 years now.

These three migrant women desire to pursue further studies and take courses more in line with their real aspirations — Maricel to be a full-fledged nurse here in Canada, Cristy to take a course for Radiology Technicians and Maru to pursue a diploma program for Community Service Workers. Still they opted to first recognize their actual conditions, to address their current pressing needs – 1) a relatively stable job; and 2) the economic needs of their families back home. They believe that, combined with their perseverance and their families’ guiding inspiration, the humble gains they achieved from finishing these short courses will bear much fruit in the long run – no matter the trials and challenges in the lives as women migrants overseas.

Celebrating with iwworkers, Binnadang members and friends