Turning adversity into a stepping stone for dreams

One is a domestic helper who becomes an artist to cope with abuses. The other is a lawyer who wants to return home and work at the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO).

Their stories may be different, their circumstances in stark contrast, but the two Filipinos from New York City showed how they triumphed in the best and worst of times.

Mona Kuker was 36 years old when she started working as a baby sitter in New Jersey. She was among illegally staying Filipinos in the United States in 2000 taking her chances to work in the United States.

For 13 years, she had to put up with verbal and emotional abuse as well as sexual advances while working in between casual jobs.

“I had a bad experience like the other OFWs who were abused. I worked for seven days without rest,” Kuker told Vice President Leni Robredo in a taped interview, which was aired Sunday during her weekly radio show.

“If your employer knows you’re a undocumented female worker, they will take advantage and abuse you,” she said in Filipino.

Kuker had to switch jobs several times to survive. Her fate changed six years ago when she got married. That was the time she obtained proper documents for employment.

To deal emotionally with her daily struggle as a migrant worker, she learned to paint.

Kuker said painting was her coping mechanism on all the hardships she went through in her life there.

“I was losing hope then. I did not know why I bought paint and started painting. That was either brought by my love for country or my longing to see my family again,” she said.

The Filipina got her first break when one of her works was displayed in an exhibit.

“Painting is not about making profit, but it’s a passion to express your inner self,” she said.

Robredo met some OFWs in New York City as part of the Istorya ng Pag-asa, her office’s initiative to promote inspiring stories of Filipinos abroad.

The Vice President went to the US last month for the graduation of her eldest daughter, Aika, at Harvard University, but she also took the opportunity to look for stories of hope and triumph of OFWs to inspire others.

Neneth Aporo, a New York-based lawyer, who came home and took last year’s Bar examinations so she can work for PAO, was also featured by Robredo in her radio show.