Helping Hands: a Filipino’s fight to keep her son

A Filipino woman’s life is in turmoil. She’s struggling with huge debt and trying to stop her ex-husband from taking her baby boy from her.

Single mother C L faces steep hospital bills after her ex-husband abandoned her and their baby. Reem Mohammed / The National

ABU DHABI // A Filipina’s life is in turmoil. She is struggling with huge debts and trying to stop her ex-husband from taking their child.

C L came to the UAE in 2010 to work as a stock person at a Dubai department store. The 31-year-old met her husband, a Syrian, who worked at another branch of the chain and they married two years later.

“He was wonderful,” she says. “But he started changing when I got pregnant.”

That was last year.

“He started going out a lot and I started getting very angry. Then, one day, he told me that he was in love with another woman – my kabayan [a fellow Filipino].”

At the time, C L was eight months pregnant.

“My blood pressure shot up and I was rushed to the hospital. I had to have a Caesarian because the baby was in danger.”

Her son was born at 34 weeks and weighed 1.3 kilos.

The boy had to stay in an incubator for 25 days, which resulted in a hospital bill of Dh112,850, something her insurance did not cover.

“I thought my husband would help me but he divorced me a few months later.”

Her husband then left his wife and newborn son and went to Germany.

C L had no choice but to send her baby to her sister’s home in the Philippines.

“My husband began calling and demanding that I send my baby to him in Germany,” C Lsays. “He says that my son will receive social benefits and I am selfish for not sending him. I can’t give him my baby.” C L earns Dh1,900 a month and has free accommodation provided by her company.

Employees, however, are not allowed to keep their children with them.

“I send my sister money every month to take care of my son,” she says. “I can’t afford to pay the hospital. I am so afraid that I will go to jail. What will happen to my son? I don’t want him to go to Germany.

“I know his father just wants him to get the benefits. But if I go to jail then who will take care of my baby? My sister won’t be able to afford to take care of him.”

Hisham Al Zahrani, manager of zakat and social services at Dar Al Ber, describes the father’s behaviour as appalling.

“We have advised C L to not send her son unless she accompanies him,” says Mr Al Zahrani.

“We hope that by getting enough donations to pay her hospital bill she will not have to resort to that.”

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