Global Bayaning Pilipino Awards - Middle East 2012

INSTITUTION CATEGORY

Filipino Badminton Committee in Kuwait-Philippines (Country Winner)

• Jabriya, State of Kuwait

Filipinos abroad came together for various reasons.  For the Filipino Badminton Committee Kuwait Philippines Incorporated (FBCKPI), it was their love for badminton that inspired them to start an organization.  In the beginning, their intention was to simply gather Filipino badminton enthusiasts in Kuwait.  But like any other sports, badminton taught them camaraderie, and it is this virtue that made them more than just a sports organization.

From promoting and organizing regular badminton activities and tournaments, FBCKPI now also serves as a social action group that aims to protect and promote the welfare of overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait.  Through the collection of membership and tournament fees, as well as some cash donation, the organization is able to fund projects to help, not just the Filipinos in Kuwait, but also their kababayans back home.  In fact, they have recently donated to the victims of typhoon Sendong.

To help their fellow overseas workers in Kuwait, they launched the Libreng Tawag sa Pilipinas project, benefitting 43 Filipinos housed at the OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Association) shelter in Kuwait.  They were also able to send relief goods to the workers of Medco Cement Factory who were stranded in Kuwait and abandoned by their employers.

Aside from their relief projects, they also participated in educational programs like ABS-CBN Foundation’s Adopt-A-Hometown-School project, sending ETV package donations to towns in Bicol and South Cotabato.  In 2008, they also donated to the Tuloy-Aral Scholarship Project of OWWA.

From being a sports organization, FBCKPI is now one of the most trusted and most reliable Filipino organizations in Kuwait.  Indeed, they are true champions of nationalism, compassion and heroism.

Computer Society of Filipinos-COMSOFIL (Country Finalist)

• Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Established in 1995, Computer Society of Filipinos International Incorporated (COMSOFIL) intended to create training programs about information and computer technology for overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia.

Through the years, COMSOFIL expanded its training programs with basic photography, basic and advanced autocad, and computer repairs, among others, offering the courses at very affordable prices.  They have trained thousands of overseas workers with the goal of enriching their lives and giving them other career opportunities, especially when they decide to go back to the Philippines.

Many beneficiaries of the training programs acknowledged how the trainings have helped them move up in their jobs and provided them with a more promising life abroad.  In a sense, COMSOFIL is an advocate of teaching men how to fish instead of just giving them fishes – something worth recognizing for its long term effect on the people they have helped.