Pinoy in UK to carry Olympic torch for OFWs
Reymund Enteria, a Filipino occupational therapist in the United Kingdom will be carrying the torch for some nine million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) around the world in the 2012 Olympics this July.
The 30-year-old, who hails from Antipolo City, disclosed to GMA News Online via e-mail that he will be running on July 22, the last Sunday before the Olympic’s opening ceremony at the Barking and Dagenham Borough of London.
“I am running in behalf of the OFWs,” he wrote, adding that he received the news only last Saturday, after waiting for five months. “I was very surprised [because] I’m not an athlete—just an ordinary individual.”
Enteria said he was proud to represent his fellow OFWs, who he said are “not all about money, but courage and determination.”
Currently working for a medical center based in Tonbridge Kent, Enteria was chosen as one of the 8,000 “Coca-Cola Future Flame” participants, or the “inspirational people who will carry the Olympic Flame” as it goes around this year’s host country for 70 days.
The list for the torch relay, made public on Monday, has 7,300 confirmed places. It is posted at http://www.london2012.com/games/olympic-torch-relay/torchbearers/ .
In a blog entry he wrote for the UK-based Filipino site AdoboRice.com, Enteria said he entered the “Future Flame” call for nominations with his insights on the sacrifices of OFW families, which he drew from the fact that he eventually followed in his mother’s footsteps of working abroad.
The occupational therapist said the first kind of loneliness that he had to endure as part of an OFW family was being apart from his mother, who left the Philippines for a better job overseas when he was only nine years old.
His mother, he said, worked abroad for four years with two-year contracts that left them with no choice but to communicate via snail mail and expensive long distance phone calls.
Years later as a licensed occupational therapist, Enteria would leave his career beginnings in the Philippines to work in Saudi Arabia, where he first experienced the loneliness of being apart from his family, coupled by “differences in employment benefits and beliefs.”
“I went to Saudi Arabia with thoughts of using that opportunity as a stepping stone to be in a much better place like the UK or the USA,” he wrote on his AdoboRice.com piece. “The reality is that inequality happens [there]… I [had] the same job like other OTs (occupational therapists), but we received [different] salaries and [because I’m] from the Philippines, mine was the lowest rate.”
The hopes he pinned on his sacrifices in the Arab country paid off, however. Aside from the chance to provide for his family, Enteria said he was “recognized in the biggest rehabilitation hospital in the Middle East, where I became the first OT to handle the newly opened brain injury unit.”
Two years into his work in Saudi Arabia, he got an offer from UK’s The Raphael Medical Center, where he has been working as a full-time OT specialist for more than four years.
Saying that not all OFWs are “lucky” to work with good employers, Enteria will dedicate his torch-bearing run to his fellow Filipinos abroad, who have to sacrifice a lot of things and bear with loneliness in order to give their families a better life.
“It is true that we OFWs are considered modern heroes as we help not only our families but also the growth of [the] economy. All overseas workers, particularly the Filipinos, deserve to be recognized as inspiring individuals who have burning passion of spreading happiness to others,” he wrote. - VVP, GMA News
The 30-year-old, who hails from Antipolo City, disclosed to GMA News Online via e-mail that he will be running on July 22, the last Sunday before the Olympic’s opening ceremony at the Barking and Dagenham Borough of London.
“I am running in behalf of the OFWs,” he wrote, adding that he received the news only last Saturday, after waiting for five months. “I was very surprised [because] I’m not an athlete—just an ordinary individual.”
Enteria said he was proud to represent his fellow OFWs, who he said are “not all about money, but courage and determination.”
Currently working for a medical center based in Tonbridge Kent, Enteria was chosen as one of the 8,000 “Coca-Cola Future Flame” participants, or the “inspirational people who will carry the Olympic Flame” as it goes around this year’s host country for 70 days.
The list for the torch relay, made public on Monday, has 7,300 confirmed places. It is posted at http://www.london2012.com/
In a blog entry he wrote for the UK-based Filipino site AdoboRice.com, Enteria said he entered the “Future Flame” call for nominations with his insights on the sacrifices of OFW families, which he drew from the fact that he eventually followed in his mother’s footsteps of working abroad.
The occupational therapist said the first kind of loneliness that he had to endure as part of an OFW family was being apart from his mother, who left the Philippines for a better job overseas when he was only nine years old.
His mother, he said, worked abroad for four years with two-year contracts that left them with no choice but to communicate via snail mail and expensive long distance phone calls.
Years later as a licensed occupational therapist, Enteria would leave his career beginnings in the Philippines to work in Saudi Arabia, where he first experienced the loneliness of being apart from his family, coupled by “differences in employment benefits and beliefs.”
“I went to Saudi Arabia with thoughts of using that opportunity as a stepping stone to be in a much better place like the UK or the USA,” he wrote on his AdoboRice.com piece. “The reality is that inequality happens [there]… I [had] the same job like other OTs (occupational therapists), but we received [different] salaries and [because I’m] from the Philippines, mine was the lowest rate.”
The hopes he pinned on his sacrifices in the Arab country paid off, however. Aside from the chance to provide for his family, Enteria said he was “recognized in the biggest rehabilitation hospital in the Middle East, where I became the first OT to handle the newly opened brain injury unit.”
Two years into his work in Saudi Arabia, he got an offer from UK’s The Raphael Medical Center, where he has been working as a full-time OT specialist for more than four years.
Saying that not all OFWs are “lucky” to work with good employers, Enteria will dedicate his torch-bearing run to his fellow Filipinos abroad, who have to sacrifice a lot of things and bear with loneliness in order to give their families a better life.
“It is true that we OFWs are considered modern heroes as we help not only our families but also the growth of [the] economy. All overseas workers, particularly the Filipinos, deserve to be recognized as inspiring individuals who have burning passion of spreading happiness to others,” he wrote. - VVP, GMA News
No comments:
Post a Comment