The Philippine Embassy in Oman recently launched a program to promote and sustain the mental, psychological and emotional well-being of female OFWs, mostly runaway household service workers, sheltered at the Filipino Workers Resource Center (POLO/OWWA) in Muscat.

A team of 15 Filipino psychiatric nurses from the IBN SINA Hospital in Al Amerat, Muscat will conduct six separate sessions up to December. The nurses work under the Ministry of Health in Oman and have also earned accreditation with the National Center for Mental Health in the Philippines. They are trained on the holistic approach in handling different cases.

According to Ramil De Villa Robles, the program - entitled Psycho-Social Management - will consist of a film showing depicting OFW life, music and art activities, group socialization and counseling. Participants will also be trained on relaxation and stress prevention techniques, basic massage and reflexology.

The seminar is a joint initiative undertaken by Ambassador Joselito A. Jimeno and Labor Attaché Ernesto C. Bihis to address the overall wellness of female wards, currently numbering about fifty, at the POLO/OWWA Center.