Girlie Gioquino: Migrant Worker

Philippines Dept: Yet, he knew it fell upon him and the wider Filipino community to give Girlie Gioquino a proper memorial and, more important, repatriate the woman s body to her family in the Philippines, the home she left behind a decade ago to work as a live-in caregiver, first in Israel and later in Toronto, according to The Star. The problem is that Gioquino, like many migrant workers in Canada, had no family in Canada to take care of her funeral or the money to send the body home and arranging a funeral for a migrant worker is not on Alberto Rodil s job description as an immigrant settlement worker. Diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer on April 23, Gioquino, a non-smoker, wanted to return to the Philippines and die at home. However, she was already too sick to travel and died at the Lakeridge Health community hospital in Oshawa within three weeks of her diagnosis on Mother s Day. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.