SOCIAL BENEFITS. Rizza Joy Moldes, OIC-regional director of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration-Western Visayas, shares the health and medical programs for overseas Filipino workers during the provincial government’s Forum on Women’s Health and other Gender and Development Matters held at the Capitol Social Hall in Bacolod City on Friday (July 7, 2023). Negros Occidental is among the provinces with “feminization of migration,” wherein there is an increasing number of women who are migrant workers.
(Photo courtesy of PIO Negros Occidental
BACOLOD CITY – The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Western Visayas (OWWA-6) has released some PHP25 million in social benefits to migrant workers and their families in the region from January to June this year.
These include more than PHP19 million worth of death insurance and burial benefits to survivors of 172 deceased overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and more than PHP6 million in medical assistance to 630 beneficiaries afflicted with chronic and dreaded diseases.
The data was presented by Rizza Joy Moldes, OIC-regional director of OWWA-6, as part of the sharing on health and medical programs for OFWs during the provincial government’s Forum on Women’s Health and other Gender and Development Matters held at the Capitol Social Hall here on Friday.
“The OWWA, together with the province, also conducts psycho-social activities to help distressed and displaced OFWs especially those who experienced trauma as a result of abuse,” she added.
Moldes said Negros Occidental is among the provinces with “feminization of migration,” wherein there is an increasing number of women who are working in foreign countries.
As of February this year, of the 51,000 migrant workers from Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, more than 35,000 are females while there are only 15,000 males, both for sea-based and land-based jobs.
Meanwhile, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson acknowledged that despite growing awareness of the state of women’s health, the gender gap in health care continues and is especially noticeable in developing nations.
“Let us encourage Negrense women to prioritize their own health and not overlook their own needs owing to their natural motivation to prioritize the health of their spouse or children,” the governor said in his message.
Lacson said that women’s health encompasses more than just reproductive matters and there is a need to espouse a broader definition concerning the overall health of women.
“Let us not just renew our focus, let us commit to action and make sure that in Negros Occidental, women’s rights are upheld, and all forms of discrimination eradicated,” he added. (PNA)
