The Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc, Manila, Philippines is currently (April, 1999) finalizing the English subtitles of a video entitled "Up to Where? Until When?" on the feminization of labour migration. The video was produced with funding from the UNIFEM Trust Fund by a team of ten women migrant workers who have survived violence as overseas workers (OSWs), six professional film makers and four development workers. Six of the OSWs participated throughout, the others participated only partially, three due to re-migration and one due to the disability suffered in the course of avoiding being raped by her employer in the Middle East. The production process included training for the OSW participants in gender, basic script writing and acting.

The video was launched on 23 November 1998 at Miriam College, where it was shown as part of the event for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It has since been shown to urban poor women, the Kanlungan pool of lawyers, students attending a forum on Women and Human Rights, and the General Assembly of Kanlungan. NGOs and schools have borrowed the video extensively and cable television has also expressed interest.

The video generated lively and at times heated discussion among audiences. Some women viewers reported that they could now begin to understand why some women's NGOs were discouraging women from becoming migrant workers.

The production process also acted as a therapeutic vehicle for the OSW participants, one of whom was even empowered to relate an earlier experience of incest. As a result of the training and the production experience, they are now able to speak with confidence in public as effective advocates for OSWs. One participant, a single mother, began to take pride in the fact that her son used her family name instead of that of his father. She was inspired to write her own life story and to enter it as a screenplay in a writing competition. Another participant, battered both abroad and at home, decided to separate from her violent husband.

The professional video crew was also affected. The Director, a screen playwright, was so impressed by NGO work and the NGO style of working that he has now taken up other NGO work and has become an advocate for people's issues and concerns. The camera person now works as a volunteer with Kanlungan to assist women migrants, and a lawyer who attended the launching volunteered to assist in future productions.

The Kunlungan Centre Foundation contact details are on our VAW Campaign directory page.

Dated: 29Apr1999