Sharing experiences

BANGKOK – The 2nd Asia Pacific Conference on Reproduction and Sexual Health (APCRSH) is an exciting exercise in sharing and listening to experiences of NGOs from 31 countries in dealing with reproductive and sexual health and rights of men, women and young people in the region.

Hilda Tabar-Cleofe, executive director of the American Chamber Foundation of Makati one of whose major concerns is adolescents, is taking home with her lessons learned from presentations at the Twin Towers Hotel, venue of the conference being attended by nearly 1,500 delegates and guests. "I’ve listened to problems of young people from Thailand to the Philippines to Indonesia and the problems are similar, with cultural variations, but the approaches are different. I’d like to apply lessons learned our youth center which will open early next year."

NGOs dealing with migrant women may find applicable lessons from the presentation of Dr. Ederlinda M. Fernandez who with Dr. Magdalena C. Cabaraban, with assistance from Abdujim J. Hassan and support of Ford Foundation, worked with Halaws, or Filipino deportees from Malaysia. Her story should remind government officials that they are still around, and in bad need of help.

In its early years of development, Malaysia opened its door to migrant workers especially in the "3D" sectors – dirty, dangerous and demeaning work. Undocumented Filipino migrants had been estimated at a high of 500,000, 71 per cent of them coming from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, majority of them Muslims, 64 per cent belonging to the 18-59 age bracket, 62 per cent of them males, and 32, females. Mostly low-educated and low-skilled.

Deportations began in the 1980s;in 2000, massive deportations took place. By August 30,2002, thousands were shipped back to the Philippines. They were first placed in detention cells in Malaysia, their plight characterized by malnutrition, dehydration, diarrhea, severe respiratory tract infections, gastro-intestinal diseases.

The result was separations from families, family relationships were fractured, jobs were lost, dwellings destroyed and properties confiscated. Government response was "reactive", media covered events only during the height of the controversy, and the Malaysian government was lambasted by media and the public for perceived human rights violations of deportees. The fund-raising campaigns yielded funds only for more immediate needs.

Dr. Fernandez cited the maltreatment, physical and sexual abuses and torture of women in detention centers, sex trafficking and double victimizing of trafficked women. Despite the hardships they go through, illegal migrants from the Philippine will continue outward exodus in search of better economic opportunities unavailable in their home country, she said.

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