With the completion of 40 days of the swearing in of officers and Council of United Filipino Organisations in Qatar (UFOQ) 2016-2017, the overarching umbrella body of around 165 Filipino organisations in Qatar presented its accomplishment and look-ahead report of this time period — September 22 to October 31 — to more than 100 Filipino community leaders over the weekend.
The directional change in UFOQ’s plan for the coming months is clear — to alter its focus from being centred on the celebration of Philippine Independence and other major events to “a diversified scope of services and projects directly benefiting Overseas Filipinos”.
Ressie S Fos, Chairman, UFOQ, explained to Community, “The UFOQ, as the umbrella organisation of the Filipino community in Qatar, sets a Quarterly General Assembly. The purposes of this are to report to the community the highlights of accomplishments of the organisation and also for the Philippine embassy and Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) to update the Filipino community of embassy and labour-related information, services, and updates.
Updates also include current laws of Qatar, for instance, Law 21 of 2016, the Amnesty programme and other authority regulations that need to be conveyed to the Filipino community.”
While UFOQ is a non-profit organisation established by the Philippine embassy as the umbrella organisation of more than 222,000 Filipinos in Qatar, the organisation sets its vision to the benefits of Filipino expats as well as supporting and collaborating with Qatar authorities in their community programmes, points out Fos.
“Based on the UFOQ Roadmap for 2016-2017 term, our major thrusts are – to reach out to distressed and less fortunate Filipino expats; facilitate skills and career advancement trainings; promote Philippine Tourism and Culture and festivities as well as Qatar Tourism and culture and awareness; celebrate the Philippine Independence Day, and integrate possible MOI and Supreme Committee-related 22 community and advocacy programmes; contribute to youth and students development among the Philippine schools in Doha; and continue to be consistent role-model expatriates community after being awarded last year as the best community,” said Fos.  At the Labour Welfare Awards 2015, the Filipino community in Qatar was honoured with the ‘Best Community Award’ for being one of the most organised communities by working within a structured and dynamic framework to support its members through various initiatives, among other reasons.
The detailed, new 40-day Accomplishment and Look-ahead report states that there are at least 22 priority programmes and projects that UFOQ identified and worked for since the new officers and Council assumed office.
Apart from the ones Fos pointed out, there are programmes that deal with information dissemination and advocacy; maximise the involvement of Filipino community regardless of regional and religious differences; financial literacy, entrepreneurship and OFWs reintegration awareness and advocacy; and community events.
“In addition to these categories, UFOQ started to align its administrative and operational requirements, procedures and policies to be able to have a professional, transparent and progressive organisational management and leadership,” the report says.
Of the various committee accomplishments, there’s the Committee on Welfare and Outreach which focuses on providing assistance to the needy OFWs in Qatar through various programmes, for instance. Last month, the Committee launched the ‘Send Someone Home’ programme which aims at giving free plane tickets to OFWs who are ready for repatriation and have been qualified by and according to POLO’s procedure.
There shall be at least five tickets to be made available at any given time. The programme so far gains support from Filipino organisations, private individuals and prospective sponsors who have signified positive response to UFOQ’s call, the report states.
As for the Tourism and Culture Committee, it is re-established now to include Philippine Culture to be an integral part of the committee’s thrusts, the report explains. “The committee submitted its Action Plan to push major projects such as – Visit Philippines 2017, promotion of Philippine Tourism and Culture in Travel Agencies and Malls in Qatar; Philippine Tourism and Cultural Regional festivals, and many more,” the report says.
“On November 25, there will be a poster-making contest to be participated in by students from PSD and PISQ of which winning designs shall be officially used in the Visit Philippines 2017 promotions. The committee has also organised the Regional Tourism and Culture Council composed of representatives from the various political regions of the Philippines.”
Meanwhile, with regards to Advocacy and Training Committee, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between UFOQ and Ferrand Human Resources (FHR) Qatar, a licensed training centre in Qatar has been signed, the report reveals. “Under this MOA, FHR will provide UFOQ training facility free of charge for one year, or until the MOA is revoked and the partnership is terminated,” the report says.
“In addition, UFOQ and FHR shall also partner in providing skills training to OFWs especially those who are in the blue-collar jobs. FHR will give discount of up to 75 per cent for OFWs endorsed by UFOQ to train on certified or TESDA accredited courses.”