OFW-turned-businesswoman offers free housing to job-seeking Filipinos in Dubai

A former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who now operates her own events and digital marketing business has donated a one-bedroom flat to other OFWs who are seeking employment in the city.

Michico Lopez Ramos, 38, stated that she is doing so because she understands what it is like to be unemployed and without family in a distant country.

“I am doing this to assist our kababayan (fellow countrymen) who are having difficulty finding employment,” Ramos told Rappler. “I understand what it is like to have nothing – no work, no money, and to be responsible for rent, electricity, food, and other costs. I have been in a scenario where no one else could help since everyone has their own problems…. I am not wealthy, but I want to be God’s tool in giving them hope and confidence to begin a new life, and in easing their load in any small manner I can. I have been in that predicament, therefore I understand how it feels.”

A Filipino enclave, according to Lopez, four individuals have taken sanctuary in the apartment unit located on the Al Rigga strip in Deira, Dubai. She told they may remain till they found employment.

“It is a wonderful feeling to serve others without expecting anything in return. I think that God blesses us so that we may benefit others. We have no idea how much our modest acts of kindness mean to individuals we’ve been able to assist,” she continued in a combination of English and slang.

In 2004, Ramos earned a bachelor’s degree in science and information technology from Far Eastern University Diliman. Typically, her travel from their home in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, to school might take up to two hours. Going home following class would take her the same amount of time.

She had lived through at least three visit visas, which she had to continually renew in order to remain in the city while seeking employment, since her arrival in Dubai almost fifteen years earlier. A visit visa is valid for a maximum of three months. Her first position was as a salesperson at an electronics store, where she sold computers and mobile phones.

In Dubai, a one-bedroom residential unit costs between AED 38,000 and AED 48,000 per year (P563,187 to P711,394). It may be subdivided into at least five smaller rooms for 1,200 to 1,500 AED each month (P17,784 to P22,231). Each partitioned room is capable of accommodating two people on bunk beds. Ramos might have easily earned income by renting out her apartment, as is customary.

Ramos operates Creative Group, a business she founded a few years ago and which now has a number of prominent clientele.