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[ soles & stories JRDN ] Lita

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“Every time I left home to travel for work it became easier” says Lita as she describes the process of leaving the Philippines and flying to an uncertain employment situation in a far away country.

She has made life-altering trips from the Philippines to the Middle East three times now. The first was to Kuwait for two years, the second was to Dubai for two years, and the last time was when she arrived in Jordan six years ago.

It was 2001 when Lita first realized the need to leave home and find work abroad to support her three children, Menchie, Brian and Dexter, and although the children she left in 2001 have done a lot of growing up over the last twelve years, Lita says she will continue to work until their futures are all secure.

Finding it hard to sustain decent employment in the Philippines and therefore take care of her family, the decision to leave home for work was one of the hardest she has ever made. Lita describes the process of boarding a plane bound for employment as a domestic worker in Kuwait back in 2001 as one of the most nervous moments of her life. But as employment ended in Kuwait and then Dubai, and trips home meant time with her family, including grandchildren, the opportunity to provide for her children by working overseas was always one she took.

While Lita’s long spell in Amman has been to help take care of the family she has moved away from, it is also due in large part to the family she has become part of.

She describes with a big smile how she is treated like a sister and is cared for and looked after by her employers and that it makes a big difference to her experience.

Her youngest child, Dexter, will soon finish school and with her children’s educations paid for through her work, Lita’s dream is to save money for a small house and maybe even a business in the Philippines.