Cherry Ann Gutierrez of Iloilo City has many things in mind when she made the decision to work out of the country. For one she is thinking of the future of her two children. She needed a job that would give her a higher income because aside from being a single parent, she also has to take care of her father and her only brother because she is the eldest child. Her father suffered a mild stroke then and needed emotional and financial support.

Inspired with the goal to support her family, Cherry started searching for an overseas job by sending an application to several POEA-licensed recruitment agencies. Luckily she was hired to be a caretaker in Taiwan. According to Cherry, the move to leave her two small children behind is a difficult decision. She was so sad to be away from them but then she know she has to sacrifice so she can give them a better future.

Cherry arrived in the city of Taipei in Taiwan on March 29, 2004. Of course she misses her family in the Philippines everyday especially her two children but she is fortunate to have a good employer so she was able to survive homesickness. She is very happy working for her two employers which she fondly calls akong and ama which means grandmother and grandfather in Taiwan.

There was just one unfortunate incident when she was picked up by the Taiwan police because she was mistaken to be a runaway worker. To prove that she was a legal worker, she gave the number of her male employer to the police. She had to wait in jail for an hour before her employer arrives and she was released.

Cherry is just one of the many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are working in a foreign land just to escape poverty and unemployment here. This is her message to all OFWs like her around the world: Continue to love and serve other people and someday you will accept grace from God.