Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting

May 1, 2007

ISS-Phils., Inc. was a host of the 6th Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting last May 2007. This was a well attended event and a gathering of notable social practitioners drawn together by a common desire to evolve a road-map for relevant services/interventions with the end in view of ameliorating the unfortunate plight of disadvantaged individuals and families.

Asia Pacific Regional Meeting

In the said event, the delegates were amply oriented on current trends and figures of social issues and concerns, which frequently victimize our compatriot overseas Filipino workers, Filipino migrants and/or Filipinos sojourning in foreign lands. Invited speakers delivered thought-provoking statistics of increasing migration-related cases as well as thematic problems that require urgent, if not immediate inter-country cooperation and intervention.

As a valued added to the event, a Fund-raising seminar was conducted with 80 participants and 5 foreign delegates. They committed to help ISS-Phils., in hosting a professional fund-raising seminar preferably to coincide with the next Regional Meeting.

We are pleased to integrate into this Annual Report our Executive Summary of this meeting as a successful milestone in ISS-Phils., Inc.’s continuing effort to be responsive and relevant to the burgeoning exodus of Filipinos for overseas employment.

This Regional Meeting incidentally marks also the First Anniversary of ISS Philippines as a branch of International Social Service.

The primary objective was to galvanize relevant services for migrants and victims of human trafficking in distressed situations and at the same time enlist sustainable commitments from government and private institutions to evolve programs and projects designed to alleviate the plight of this segment of our population.

Notwithstanding the limited timeframe of the event, it is the feeling of the Board of Trustees, the benefactors and donors and the staff of ISS Philippines that the affair was a great success. The various participants have so remarked that the event was meaningful and in a way productive as it certainly provided a forum whereby lessons learned and best practices in social service were distilled to all those who attended. It was an opportunity, they say, that was worthwhile.

The occasion was moreover eventful and beneficial to the cause of migration and human trafficking essentially because -

  1. it was well attended by a broad segment of government line agencies’ representatives/officials, heads of socio-civic institutions and cause-oriented non-government organizations;
  2. the varied expertise and experiences brought by the delegates and participants into the event made the proceedings not only lively and interesting but also conscience-provoking;
  3. it was a rich opportunity for ISS Philippines to enlist the best minds in the country and provoked them into productive public discourse on the emerging issues of migration and human trafficking as well as their social costs to families;
  4. it also brought to the attention of a wider range of organizations and government officials the sad plight of Filipino migrant workers, overseas Filipino workers who oftentimes become victims of exploitations, if not, human trafficking;
  5. it hopefully registered a loud clamor for crucial interventions even as it enjoined all sectors concerned to put in place essential solutions as are feasible within their organizational mandates and resources.