stemming back the tide

Hello sisters! As we are on the final leg of our work assignment, i hope that everyone of us will be able to send out our best work so that we all end up with a big bang. Award or no award, what is most important is that we are all able to learn so much from our journey as VOF correspondents,as we struggle past our own different circumstances and constraints, and that we are able to give our best. I plan to make a feature story on this:

The Philippines is one of top countries in the world that annually sends thousands of its men and women to foreign lands to prop a perpetually ailing economy. Export labor as a government development policy results in remittances which reaches US$ 7 billion a year. Filipino women in particular constitute 60-80% of the workers abroad working mostly as care givers and entertainers. While their remittances enable some 2.6 million families to meets their basic needs and contribute to our GNP, the social cost of a missing mother or an older sister in a family cannot be ignored. But increasing poverty in rural and urban areas and the lack of jobs push many women to work abroad as a survival strategy, not just for herself but for her family.

How can the tide of women out-migration be stopped? Can migrants aside from their remittances, contribute to the development of their communities and alleviate poverty? I would like to write about how a self-organized group of migrants based in Europe led by women are mobilizing support to help other women back in their home communities fight poverty with the end view of stemming back the tide of women outmigration.