DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Efforts paid off for a young single mom who once scoured the five-kilometer stretch of Sheikh Zayed Road from the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) to Dubai Mall under the August summer sun, going from one hotel, café and shop to another, looking a job so she could provide for her four-year-old son in the Philippines. “Now, nakuha ko na anak ko. Nandito na siya kasama ko sa Dubai.
Sobrang saya ko kasi hindi na siya malayo sa akin. Na kahit pagod ako sa work, pag-uwi ko nakikita at nayayakap ko na sya lagi. Hindi ko na kailangan maghintay ng isang taon ‘pag naka-leave ako sa trabaho bago ko sya makasama ulit,” said 29-year-old Rachelle Claire Melchor of Binangonan, Rizal.
(Now, I have brought my son with me. We’re finally together here in Dubai. I am so overjoyed that he’s right next to me where I can always see and hug him whenever I get home from work.
I don’t have to wait a year for my annual leave to see him again.) Melchor left her son, Charles, with one thing in mind: to provide a bright future for him. Pregnant at 17 At 17, Melchor was a bright-eyed, first year college student taking up a course in business administration (BA) at University of Rizal System – Binangonan.
But things went to a grinding halt when she got pregnant. Coming from what she called a “broken family,” Melchor lamented growing up feeling uncared for. Nobody in the family was taking her seriously, she said.
“Walang may favorite sa akin. Meron pang t.
