Susan Ople with OFWs in HK

As a former OFW myself, I can’t help but notice the sterling work Ms. Susan Ople does to my fellow OFWs. A former Labor undersecretary, Susan (or “Toots” to many of her friends) is really dead serious on her advocacy. She always make sure that she’s there wherever there’s action.

She was there when more than 100 truck drivers got stranded in the Middle East after being victimized by their recruiter.

Ople was there when a big-time Singaporean human smuggler abused a Filipina.

And Ople was also there to lend a helping hand to OFWs who were victimized by human smuggling and drug syndicates. When a Pinoy landed in jail for trumped up drug smuggling charges in China, Susan Ople made sure that all legal help was extended to our kababayans.

Ople in HK for her Microsoft TULAY Project

Recently, she went to Hongkong for her TULAY project. Tulay, essentially, is a project conceptualized by Susan for the Blas F. Ople Labor Policy Center. What it does is it helps OFWs learn about the fundamentals of IT or computer technology. OFWs are given seminars on how to maximize the power of the internet and other applications. Thousands have already benefitted from the TULAY project of Susan Ople.

By the way, Ople partners with Microsoft for the free personal computers she gives to OFWs abroad. Great work, Toots! Hope that your tribe increase especially in the Senate.

I’m back! I have sorted out my schedules, right now I’m committed to blogging twice to thrice a week. You can expect new posts to come out W-F at the least or M-W-F at the most. Hopefully my schedule won’t be as erratic as it was before. My problems are still there, and haven’t changed since my last post about it, but I’m coping well thus far.

No matter what my status is, I find it hard not to write (an old post).

I am currently doing a project for Kaisa foundation. It is a biography project of selected prominent individuals of Chinese descent. I was assigned four people. So far, I have interviewed one doctor and one former senator. Since I am a freelance writer, I also interviewed a city mayor for another publication. Never in my life have I imagined that I’d be where I am today.

It’s an exhilarating experience to meet people from diverse fields. They give me inspiration especially in the trying times that I have currently. Learning about a successful person’s past gives me a new perspective on things. It also gives me – albeit fleetingly – a sense of hope.

I don’t earn as much as my previous line of work, but I certainly enjoy what I am doing. Sometimes no matter how hard you pursue a certain career path, along it you pick up something  – like a hibernating skill or a new interest – and you are forced to make a choice. Do you stay where you are? Or do you start a new trail?

I’m in that stage right now.

I guess one way of facilitating the decision making process is to define what your circumstances are. At the end of the day, you have to make sure your work puts food on the table. It’s difficult to be idealistic if you don’t have money to pay for essentials – food, shelter, clothing.

And that’s my dilemma. I’m stuck in the middle. I know I can excel in writing and in my previous work, which was a marketing job. So what if I find a job that combines the two?

It would be neat to find a writing job with a marketer’s pay hehe. Wishful thinking, as my job hunt has made me realize… so far.

Another way of looking at it is to search your priorities. What is it that you need in the short term? The best choice isn’t always the choice you want.

Well that’s it for now, I still have to complete that writeup. Catch you again on my next update!

Ciao!