Back home
Hadjirudin was one of the 200 OFWs who were brought to the ABS-CBN. One of them won the P1-million ($19,409.94, based on an exchange rate of P51.52 per US dollar) prize on the variety show Wowowee on Wednesday. Hadjirudin said they were given each P4,111 ($79.79). Using her share, she bought a cellular phone as “remembrance” of the prize money.
She stays at the Half-way Home in the OWWA building and could not believe she is back in the country. There she saw other OFWs who got hurt while escaping their employers. “Ano na lang kaya ang nangyari sa akin kung tumalon ako?” (What would have happened to me had I jumped?)
Hadjirudin underwent a post stress traumatic syndrome exercise by health professionals from the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH).
“Parang naririnig ko pa nga ang amo ko, inuutusan ako,” (I could still hear my employer, giving me orders.) she said, adding that she sleeps at 5 a.m., which is 12 midnight in Lebanon, her bedtime when she was still there.
Bon Ploteña, a psychiatric nurse at the NCMH, said that these reactions are normal. They organize the OFWs into small groups, with a health worker from the NCMH to facilitate the sharing.
“Lahat nga umiyak habang nagkukwento,” (Each of us cried as we tell our stories) said Hadjirudin who also cried in the interview.
This will lessen their emotional baggage which was caused by their relationship with their employer or their experience of the bombing, said Ploteña. This service is only done for the OFWs evacuated from Lebanon where the OWWA sought their help.
Hadjirudin said she could not go home yet like other OFWs from the far south because she still has to wait for her ferry ticket. “Nauna pa nga sa akin yung kadarating lang, siguro hinuhuli nila ‘yung malalayo,” (Those who just got here got to go first. Maybe they schedule last those who are farthest.) she said referring to those newly arrived OFWs who already had their ferry tickets to Iloilo.
But she would not stop there. Despite her experience, and because of poverty in the province, Hadjirudin would still want to work abroad to help her family in Davao.
“Magpapahinga lang ako sandali,” (I will just take a break) she said, adding she is eyeing to work in Kuwait, another war-torn country during the Gulf War in the 1990s. Bulatlat
