A few days ago I wrote a story about the sacrifices my Filipino babysitter/domestic helper (“Geraldine”) makes. It was really one of those things I wrote off the top of my head right after having a conversation with her.
My hope was really just to spread the word among us in Malaysia or Singapore who are fortunate enough to be able to employ domestic helpers from overseas. But the extent of the virality of my article has surpassed all that. From first being viral among us in Malaysia and Singapore, it now seems to be shared a lot in the Philippines.
As of this noon today, that article seems to have been shared on Facebook some 23,000 times and still rising. To give you an idea, my previous post about The Story of a Mercedes Salesman which also went viral had like over 12,000 shares.
The one other wonderful thing that came along with the article going viral was the great stories or opinions that the people who read that article shared in the comments. At least count there are over 450 comments on that entry and I read every single one. I decided though to pick out some a little bit of a very diverse group of stories or comments that I was left in that article.
There were the comments from the Overseas Foreign Workers who shared their experience of working overseas.
Some didn’t have great employers.
But many had wonderful ones.
Some worked for families that grew to mean so much to them.
and some were from the perspective of the kids who had to stay in the Philippines when their mothers went overseas to earn a living.
Some from the perspective of the kids (who are now grown up) that the helpers and nannies took care of in the countries they worked in.
Some felt that this restored their faith in humanity.
Some just really wanted to know what channel they could watch some good Filipino movies.
And some were from the perspective of family members of the domestic helpers that had to work overseas.
Some of course had opinions on things that we could do better.
But most importantly, many had great hopes for a better future.
In the end I felt that I got back a lot more than what I shared. Thank you for sharing all your stories.
I’ll end this article with something my father always told me. He said “Whether it’s domestic helpers, baby sitters, drivers or anyone who sees and takes care of your family every day. Treat them well and be good to them for they help take care of what’s most important to you in life”.
I resonate with that. If we can’t be good to the people who take care of our families then who can we be good to in life?
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space