Overseas job security depends on the worker’s health. Disability or sickness may cost migrants their employment and, worse, prevent them from helping their family back home and themselves at the same time.

Such misfortune happened to Malyn Layosa, 28, of Tondo, Manila, barely a year into her employment as a caregiver in Hualien, Taiwan in 2023. She figured in a car accident that fractured her right foot, causing her pain plus the stress of not being able to provide for her mother in the Philippines and herself while hospitalized.

“Without a source of income, Malyn’s burgeoning bills for rent, every day necessities, and the continuous therapy and doctor consultations only brought further suffering. Luckily, her fellow overseas Filipino workers would pitch in to pay her rent,” Tzu Chi Foundation said, according to Medium.com.

Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers in the Philippines and Taiwan also came to the Layosas’ rescue, helping her and her mother, Conchita, 65, cope with the difficult situation. Tzu Chi volunteers in Hualien have been regularly paying Malyn a visit, bringing cash and food assistance to tide the days over,” according to Tzu Chi.

After recovery, Malyn took up part-time and short-term caregiving jobs only that her earnings were enough to help pay off her debts and sustain herself. There was no extra money to share with her mother, who also has a deteriorating eyesight that added to her worries.

Taiwan-based Tzu Chi volunteer Conchita Tan immediately called up volunteers in the Philippines to help Malyn’s mother have her eyes checked.

At the Tzu Chi Eye Center, the elder Layosa was diagnosed on 11 April with a developing cataract, but volunteer doctors helped her manage the condition.

Moreover, Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines volunteers replenished the stocks of Conchita’s mini sari-sari store to sustain her livelihood.

The mother called her daughter in Taiwan to report the assistance and the latter was very grateful for the help.

In Malyn’s darkest time, away from her loved ones, it was the warmth of Tzu Chi volunteers in a foreign land that helped her see hope. 

“Don’t lose hope. We will help you. We will not abandon you,” Tan promised her, according to Tzu Chi.

Malyn’s job contract will end next year and her mother said she could not wait to be reunited with her daughter so she could hug her.

Tzu Chi founder Master Cheng Yen’s teachings on compassion are summed up in the so-called Jing Si Aphorisms. One of these teachings is as follows:

“The healthy should look after the sick; the untroubled should look after the suffering.” 

For the mother and daughter, who are suffering, Tzu Chi’s benevolent and compassionate response was a demonstration of Master Cheng Yen’s teaching.