Jhomie C.

Escaped through a vent.

Twenty-six years old Jhomie lives with her mother and two siblings in the Philippines. When her father passed away, she became the breadwinner for the family. She started working in bars when she was 17. She retells her story, “The last time I worked in a bar, one of the bartenders warned me and told me to escape. He saw the floor manager take money from a customer who was interested in me. Later on I was told by the floor manager that we were going somewhere and that I should go with this guy. I pretended to need the washroom and escaped through a vent.”

When asked how getting involved with the sewing of bags is helping, Jhomie responded, “Right now, our electricity is connected to our neighbor’s and we are paying them a higher amount. I am saving my money from this project so that we can apply for our own electric meter. I am thankful for this opportunity because my mom is already weak and can no longer do as much laundry work.”

How she got started in this livelihood project:

Jhomie considers herself blessed by this opportunity to develop her sewing skills, and is thankful she was able to participate in the livelihood project started through Work of Your Hand in partnership with Samaritana Transformational Ministries Inc. She is currently under Samaritana’s holistic traineeship program which desires to equip women for dignified work.

Unfortunately, due to the distance she had to travel from her residence to Samaritana, Jhomie dropped out of the training program in January of 2010.

March 2011 Update:

Work of Your Hand was pleased to discover during a visit in March that Jhomie has returned to Samaritana. She now lives in a neighbouring community with other Samaritana trainees.