25 January 2004 – The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia reported to Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto G. Romulo that they have officially opened curriculum year 2005 of the Embassy’s Skills Training Program at the Filipino Workers’ Resource Center (FWRC).  A total of 375 OFW enrollees from the Filipino community signed in for the program’s ninth consecutive year of implementation, which is being done in continuing support of the Philippine government’s reintegration program for OFWs.

According to the report of Chargé d’Affaires (CDA) of the Philippine Embassy Luis T. Cruz, the Embassy conducted two separate orientation seminars on 06 and 19 January 2005 to prepares the enrollees of the Skills Training Program.  Classes under the Program are held every Sunday and will run for 10 months, from January to October.  A formal graduation ceremony will be held around mid-October 2005.

The Skills Training Program has 23 courses being offered to its almost 400 enrollees this curriculum year 2005.  Courses include: Accounting and Bookkeeping, Arts and Crafts, Agribusiness, Learning Bahasa Melayu, Basic English, Business Development, Basic Computer Literacy, Computer II, Continental Baking, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts I, Culinary Arts II, Dressmaking, Financial Management, Folk/Modern Dances, Guitar Lessons, Hair Culture, Basic Nursing Home Culture, Nursing Home Care II, Physical Fitness, Reflexology, Shoninji Kimpo (self defense), and Tailoring.

Aside from the training program proper, the Embassy will require students under the Skills Training Program to participate in short seminars on values formation and paralegal training, as well as to enlist as members of the FWRC Savers Club.  According to CDA Cruz, the Club aims to encourage its OFW members to save a portion of their earnings, which will be periodically monitored, and provide them with information on sound financial management.

During the orientation seminars, CDA Cruz thanked the resource persons who voluntarily teach the courses and share their talent for the benefit of the OFWs, who he encouraged to make use of the program to upgrade their skills and increase their earning potential.  CDA Cruz also thanked the Malaysian NGO Isabellamina Foundation and the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations for donating 21 new computers and internet broadband connection to the FWRC Computer Literacy Program.

Also present during the orientation seminar was labor Attaché Brenda Villafuerte who briefed the students on the administrative requirements of the FWRC, as well as their duties and responsibilities as students.  Welfare Officer Raquel Llagas-Kunting, on the other hand, encouraged participants to enroll as members of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in order to avail of the numerous services and benefits that would also cover their families here in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Embassy also led Filipinos in Malaysia in observance of the national day of praying and mourning for the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster on 07 January as declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  The Embassy conducted an ecumenical fellowship for the tsunami victims, during which prayers were led by three representatives of the Filipino community from both the Christian and Muslim faiths.  During the fellowship, the Filipino community also listened to an account of the tsunami disaster by Filipino engineer Luis Encarnacion, who survived the disaster but saw first-hand the death and destruction wreaked by the killer waves that hit Phuket, Thailand where he was vacationing in with his family.  Mr. Encarnacion called on the gathered Filipinos to take stock of their lives, appreciate their blessings and lead exemplary lives as human existence is very fragile as this monumental disaster has taught him.  END
 

/bjg