06
THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 5 Number 4 | January 2015
FEATURE
IN PURSUIT OF A DREAM
Pinoy student shows brand of excellence
HIS is the face on a big ad on a public bus but Ito
Rivera only laughs off his little bit of fame plying the
streets of Illawara.
“I OFTEN ride the bus but I haven’t
even seen it – but my friends would
always tell me ‘hey, we saw you,
that’s your face on the bus,” Ito tells
AK in a recent interview.
Indeed, it has been a long ride for
the 2014 International Student of the
Year awardee. Only four years ago
he was scouting around at an Australian Embassy sponsored education
fair in the Philippines with the hope
of studying here.
The Quezon City-born educator saved all his money to study in
Australia but just in his first year in
Wollongong he had spent up all that
he had; he was cash-strapped. He
could barely survive and admits that
at some point he didn’t even have
enough to buy food or soap. With
no relatives in Australia, he did
odd jobs here and there harnessing
all the talents he has – that includes
twisting balloons and hosting kiddie
parties.
“For me it was laban kung laban.
It was very difficult for me in my first
year as a student. It was tough to find
a job. I had no relatives in Australia
and it was a struggle. One day I had
a friend who was celebrating a party for one of the kids and I told them,
maybe I can make the balloons, kumita lang ng pakonti-konti,” he says.
“Luckily I later got a job in the
place where I had my work placement in Wollongong. Still I had to
move around, continued hosting parties, even did work at the Botanic
Garden.”
Off school, the outgoing survivor
spends a lot of his time doing volunteer work. Recently he was involved
in a Beach Mission and was also a
volunteer at Red Frogs Australia, an
internationally recognised schoolies
and university network support programme.
“It was a great opportunity for me
to work with the schoolies. It feels
like being a second parent, guiding
them, looking after the youth – walking them home, cooking pancakes
for them.
“I enjoyed working as a volunteer, it keeps me very busy and it’s
also my way of giving back to the
country that embraced me.”
Ito received two awards for excellence at the TAFE Illawarra In-
stitute Awards last year. He was
awarded the International Student of
the Year and the student award for
Community and Family Services for
his studies.
Now a TAFE NSW ambassador
he has completed a Diploma of Children’s Services (Early Childhood
Education and Care), at TAFE Illawarra’s Wollongong Campus.
Recently, he started to become
active in the Pinoy community even
finding time to co-host shows and
community events including a beauty pageant presentation.
For Ito, studying and living in
Australia has been a “whirlwind experience” for him but his dream is already bearing its fruits. He is set to
finish his bachelor’s degree this year.
He’s almost there.
Always the optimist, he looks to
a great new year ahead after celebrating his 34th birthday (January 2).
His wish for the year?
“Maybe that I will be a blessing
to society, to be able to share my life,
empower the students – you can do
everything if you really believe in
what you can achieve.”
Dollar dive hounds remitters
THE
year-end saw a mix of good news and bad news
on the budget front. Filipino workers remitting money
back home had to slice a little more from their budget
as the Australian Dollar took a dive in December.
The A$ exchange rate averaged at just Php36.00 in
December during the entire peak Christmas season.
By Titus Filio
Some Pinoys dilly-dallied
in sending their hard-earned
money waiting for the right
time for the exchange rate to
bounce back in their favour
but it never did except for 0.4
per cent rebound post-Christmas.
“Malaki rin ang diperensya para sa kanila sa Pilipinas,” said Mt. Druitt-based
Mario who regularly sends
A$500 a month. A year ago,
that amount was worth 20,000
Philippine pesos – it was just
worth a little below 18,000 the
last time he sent money home
just before Christmas.
“Kailangang magdagdag
ako ng padala para ma-maintain ang allowance ko sa pamilya doon,” he said.
A money remittance
agent in Rooty Hill said they
were surprised at the slide of
the dollar.
“Customers have been
worried about it,” the agent
said.
(The rate was at
Php36.35 at COB on 31 December.)
The difference is felt even
more by Filipino-Australians who remit money in bigger amounts. A Blacktown
resident currently building a
house outside Metro Manila
said the sliding dollar is causing him to lose by the thousands. That is because he now
needs to send more money for
the purchase of building materials not to mention labour
costs in the Philippines.
The Australian Dollar is
currently at its lowest since
2010. In late 2011, the A$ exchange rate against the Philippine peso peaked at 1 to 44.
The weak Australian dollar has been attributed to fluctuati ons in A$ to US$ trade
and weaker gold and oil prices in the global market.
But that’s probably where
a bit of good news in the budget front came for many Australians during the Christmas-New Year season. Petrol
prices which hit at an average
145.0 in November took a dive
and hit as low as 112.9 just after Christmas.
Many hope that the low
petrol prices would continue
this year.