When coming home means starting over

For two decades, Myrna, a single parent, worked in Kuwait to support her family. She started in retail before later joining an American contractor as an environmental health and safety analyst.

Like many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), she endured years of separation from her loved ones in hopes of securing a better future.

But her return home was far from secure. In 2022, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Although she recovered, she was diagnosed with breast cancer the following year.

Myrna’s story was what Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan had in mind when she spoke about workers who give their all abroad for their families, only to come home with no jobs and no clear way to live.

She also faces a pending case against her employer, who failed to pay her service indemnity for 17 years.

“They didn’t pay me. They also didn’t give me a flight ticket. I even had to borrow money just to go home because they didn’t give me all the benefits,” Myrna said.

Now based in Pasay City, Myrna has been striving to make ends meet. When she returned to the Philippines in 2024, she said OWWA gave her financial and reintegration assistance, which she used to start a small business. But she admitted it has been difficult to sustain her venture while managing her illness.

Myrna also said she does not want to undergo surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy after losing friends abroad due to treatment complications.

Her story highlights the hardships OWWA aims to ease through expanded health services.

Last week, the agency received a “Lab for All” mobile medical and laboratory unit from First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, which will be registered under PhilHealth’s YAKAP program.

The unit is set to make its first rounds in Metro Manila before expanding to regional offices. A YAKAP clinic will also open at the OWWA Central Office, alongside the “Alagang OWWA Botika,” which will provide 70 kinds of free medicine with a yearly allocation of P20,000.

For returning OFWs like Myrna, being home after years abroad but facing health challenges, such initiatives may not solve everything, but they can help lighten the burden of starting anew.