Help Anna

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I was doing a research yesterday when I came across this intriguing sidebar link, Help Anna. It is about the different Anna who is a victim of violence and trafficking.

Anna, 8 years old, a tsunami survivor in Aceh, Indonesia, was abducted and forced to labor by a criminal syndicate.

Anna, 26 years old, a domestic helper Filipina who was physically and verbally abused by her employer. She is also once been deprived of food for a simple mistake committed.

Anna, 26 years old, Columbian who escaped with her children from her abusive husband, was kidnapped, trafficked to Asia and was forced into sex slavery.

Anna, 35 years old, a former successful stewardess, who suffered physical, emotional and verbal abuse from her husband when Anna caught him having an affair.

I don't know the exact statistics on the violence against women all over the world or even in the Philippines. I guess I'll have to leave that to the experts. I have witnessed and experienced myself different forms of abuse. They can happen everywhere and to anybody. In the office, at the street and even to the place we call home. The common way of violence is by being beaten almost to death and lashed out with words which make a person reduced to being an animal. It can also be in a very subtle way where bullying is done or a person can be the center of all jokes. It is mostly done by men but sadly women can also be perpetrators. Social media and networking sites are the easiest venue for bullying since some people can bash and troll by just using their fingertips and an anonymous usernames.

November 25 is the International Day to End Violence Against Women and on that same day The National Committee for UNIFEM, Singapore will unveil Anna's future. 

Let us support the End of Violence to Women. Join UNIFEM, Singapore on November 25 at Angel Canopy, Clarke Quay from 12nn to 9pm.

This Made Me Sad

When you know an ugly truth it doesn't hurt as much as when that truth is being whacked right at your face. Here's a video that has been going around the web about Michael Goodman's 20 Reasons Why I Dislike The Philippines posted on ChannelFix. 

Jimmy Sieczka, the host, lives in Cebu for about three and a half years and he pointed out all the things that he doesn't like in the Philippines. This made me angry. No, actually furious. But it's the truth, a bitter truth that I need to swallow and suck it down to my throat. Yet, again, I chose not to dwell on the negativity and do every possible way I can to prove that Filipinos can be better than this.

20 Reasons I Dislike _____. (the Philippines)

By: Michael Goodman
About: If you think really hard, I'm sure you can come up with a couple reasons not to like something. In the land he loves so much, let Jimmy take you on a lighthearted tour of the negative aspects of living in a crowded country located at the earth's equator. On the flip side, check out 20 Reasons I Love _____. (the Philippines) at: http://channelfix.com/video/109/.

Making Your Money Work

On my flight back here in SG I overheard my fellow Pinoys talking about looking for other means to earn aside from the fixed income or salary that they get from their jobs. I politely asked them if I could say something about it because not telling what I know is like a disservice on helping others even a little on financial literacy. I mentioned to them about mutual funds which could be another option to savings.

I guess many of us have savings or even time deposits in a bank. We are all aware of how little the interests are. It would be luck if we'd get 2% per annum. I myself have an account which gives me about 500 pesos interest but deducts a hundred due to tax. Funny isn't it? Almost insane. That's why hubby and I diversified our money and invested it in mutual funds.

What is mutual funds? In how I understand it, it is a pool of money from people which the fund manager or financial expert invests it to bonds, stocks, money markets, treasury bonds, and others. Basically, you entrust your money to the company and hoping that it would earn interest as the market performs.

I have invested in AXA Honeypot in 2008. AXA Honeypot is a Lump Sum mutual fund where in you invest a certain amount of money up front and looks into a 3 to 5 years investment. I am so glad that even without doing anything, despite the financial crisis the past years, my money has earned me about 50% to date! You can never have that in any bank. Back then I was a little apprehensive of letting go of that money thinking that AXA might also close down like other investing or insurance company. But, since it has partnership with Metrobank I took the big risk.

When we have seen how I could make my money work for us, hubby and I looked for other mutual fund companies. We now have Philam Strategic Growth Fund, PhilEquity Fund and the latest, FAMI - First Metro Asset Management, Inc.

It is not really hard to understand mutual funds and there are a lot of sites where you can learn the benefit of investing in mutual funds. If you have your regular job and stock trading is not for you then this is the best option you can get. You can have professional management of your hard earned money. So, you can go about your day without having to check on the stocks/bonds/market performance or the financial news.

Now, you shouldn't get so excited and rush to invest all your hard earned money. One of the major thing before investing is knowing yourself. Ask yourself how much are you willing to pay yourself? Is lump sum investment for you or Peso Cost Averaging? How long are you willing to invest? 3 years? 5 years? or until you retire? You have to be specific. It is also important that you have an emergency fund before you put your money in the pot. This would help you feel more secured knowing you still have other pockets to dig into.

It is equally important to check on the company you want to entrust your money to. Study the performance of the company and the fund managers. It would be the best choice if the company have continuous positive performance for the last five years. Before we got into other mutual fund companies, I searched the 'top mutual funds in the Philippines'. Google gladly provided me with several blogs and official sites that lists the top mutual funds in the Philippines and the percent yields for the past 3 to 5 years. This is how I got to know about FAMI with Mr. Gus Cosio as the fund manager.

In our family of ten, only my brother and I are into this kind of investing. I am glad that before my parents left for work in Riyadh I was able to convince them to save up in mutual funds. I really hope all of us, and our children, would be able to open up an account in mutual funds to make money work faster. To not let all the money waste sleeping in the banks or worse spend them all without saving up for the future.

helpful sites:

Ready To Be Rich

Millionaire Acts

Investment Philippines

Let Us Help The Kids Affected by Typhoon Sendong

Yesterday I posted on Facebook if we could also donate some toys for the kids so as to help them somehow forget even for a while the tragedy that they had. Today, I read the entry of The Filipina Mom Blogger about giving a hug to the children who had a traumatizing experience one could never imagine.

Here is an excerpt of her post:

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining: How to help TS Sendong victims

Residents were caught unaware as the floods rose rapidly at around 2 a.m. Saturday, while they were sleeping. Many of the victims were recovered in mud.

When you hear this kind of news, one begins to ask is there a silver lining to all this? It may not be apparent yet but silver lining for the TS Sendong victims is collecting stuffed toys for the children and toiletries for the women affected by the wrath of Typhoon Sendong.
 You ask “not slippers, clothes, water?”..Yes they need all that too and I am sure everyone else is donating whatever they can. It’s good to feel empathy, post, forward donation centers and contact numbers — but it’s another thing to take action. The simplest would be to TEXT 2899 with the message RED (amount you wish to give 100, 200, 500, 1000) and the funds will go directly to Red Cross. There are a hundred ways to take action, and mine is collating credible sources of donation in kind and in cash.

My friend Cathy (my co-founder of our grief advocacy, The Compassionate Friends) shows another way. Let me explain first.

See, children in trauma experience a lot of nightmares. The power of a hug, or something that they can hug cannot be underestimated. I took part in Cathy’s project five years ago when she initiated the “Thousand Bears for Bicol Project”. It was also around Christmas time too. You cannot simply imagine the joy the children felt when they received these teddy bears.

Cathy contacted the Regional Missionaries of the Philippines -Northern Mindanao Region after she spotted a poignant poster of a father with his child on a friend’s wall. She took that as her cue. Under their wing in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan are thousands of displaced women and children. This is Cathy’s small way of helping out. This is something that she had done before which is to collect stuffed toys for the children in the evacuation centers and to put together toiletry kits for the women affected by Sendong.

How to donate to the children
Here are the simple guidelines :

1. For stuffed toys please send clean, friendly looking toys (no pigs please, owing to cultural and religious sensitivities) in any size ideally, big enough for a child to hug.

2. For toiletry kits, each bag will contain the following items : toothbrush, tooth paste, soap, sanitary napkins (10 pcs), comb or brush, underwear (2 pcs) face towel, laundry soap — just the basics so the women can also take care of themselves as they take care of their children.

If you wish to help, please email her at cathybabao@gmail.com

Cathy plans to assemble the toys and goods throughout the holidays and deliver them to CDO just before the new year. She will need volunteers for drop off points in various parts of QC, San Juan, Pasig, Pasay, Makati, and Alabang. If you wish to volunteer your homes, establishments or offices as drop off points, please send me an email.

Let us all do our small share to help Northern Mindanao.

Every bear or stuffed toy that arrives matters because it counts towards making one more child happy. To share and to give is the true essence of the season.

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For the full article you may check here.

Let's also offer our prayers and church services to the victims of typhoon Sendong.

May God bless your generous hearts.