I was born in Hacienda Lupa, a mountainous part of Barangay Kapitan Ramon, Silay City, among five siblings; two boys and three girls. My parents are the agrarian reform beneficiary. My brothers helped my father in cultivating our land while three of us girls were in school.
After graduating from high school of my older sister, she worked in Manila as the domestic helper to augment family income. However, she became single mother where the whole family did not accept it readily. My mother suffered severe depression, and my father hated the world and life. That was the beginning that our world turned upside down.
Because of that, my family wanted me to stop attending school but I was a SIMAG scholar since high school and need to pay back SIMAG for stopping without the valid reason, I graduated from Bachelor of Science in Information System in 2011.
I worked as Administrative Office Staff in Bacolod City for two years and worked at a construction company for another two years. My salaries from these employers were not enough to support the studies of my younger sister in college which forced me to plan to work abroad.
While waiting for the opportunity to work abroad, I decided to work in Manila where I experienced the worst and the most challenging part of my life. I met a guy whom I loved so much and trusted my life but deceived and betrayed me. From that experience, I learned to be brave and daring.
I applied for a tourist visa to the United Arab Emirates. September 24, 2016, I traveled to Singapore and stayed at my cousin’s employer for three days. From Singapore, our plane has a stopover in Sri Lanka and flight to Abu Dhabi to Dubai. I traveled for the first time in my life, alone, just to start a new life and determined to reaching my dream.
After two months of speculation in Dubai, I was hired as an Office Staff in November 2016 in time when my tourist visa was about to expire. Now, I am enjoying so much my current job with my wonderful colleagues.
Finally, I started financially helping my family especially my mother whom I understand now what she went through in her life.
Every time I looked back where I got all the courage and determination to succeed, I always remember my days with SIMAG Foundation who first opened their door for me. As Mary Kay Ash said “Don’t limit yourself, you can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.”