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From Maid to Best-Selling Author
Sunday, 11 January 2009 23:14 Cynthia de Castro AJ Press

A few years ago, a slim bookwritten by a Filipina domestic helper, Crisanta Sampang, made it to the top ten non-fiction bestsellers of Singapore’s The Strait Times within the first two weeks of its launch. The book, Maid in Singapore, immediately became a hit, not only in Singapore, but also in Canada, where the author currently lives after having worked for years as a nanny/ housekeeper in Singapore.

Crisanta has proven her talents as an author, being also the editor of the first Filipino newspaper in Vancouver. She also formed Crazy Planet Films together with two other Filipinos in Vancouver while working as a researcher for the news desk at Canadian TV. Sampang’s dabbling in filmmaking and scriptwriting has earned her awards at the 2001 Vancouver International Film Festival and a Jury Prize at the National Film Board Contest in Banff, Alberta.

It might seem hard to believe that a domestic helper could reach great heights as a best-selling writer and filmmaker. But those who know Crisanta believe that she is certainly no ordinary girl. Born and raised in Batangas, Crisanta performed well in high school which earned her a government scholarship in college. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to graduate from college because she got pregnant at 19 and had to drop out of school and get married. The union bore three daughters who were born one after the other.

The marriage didn’t last long, however, and after a few years, Crisanta separated from her alcoholic husband. Struggling to support three daughters; then aged seven, five, and two, Crisanta desperately looked for a job abroad. Deciding to work as a maid in Singapore, Crisanta left her children with her mother in 1984.

Filled with ambition and knowing that she can do so much more than just cooking, cleaning and looking after children, Crisanta pursued what she would later on discover she was good at—writing. In between household chores, Crisanta contributed to The Strait Times, Singapore’s largest-circulated English newspaper as well as in other newspapers. She described the employers who warmly welcomed her into their family and didn’t object when she began writing about them in features for the newspapers.

"I have always wanted to write about the experiences of those like me who left their homes and sacrifices so much for their children," says the author.

Crisanta admits that she has been fortunate in having worked for good employers. She was not among the countless numbers of OFWs who become victims of abuse, exploitation and sexual assault. "I was living in a bubble with good employers, good people," she says. "And I didn’t have much experience with abused nannies. But I heard things."

What she heard formed the basis of many of Sampang’s featured stories in her book.

The author describes Maid In Singapore as " a story not of one person, but of countless others like me, who had left both hearth and home in the hope of finding a better life abroad."

"Our relatives back home only see the happy faces in photographs and the cash they receive every month but they don’t see the depression and pain that maids in foreign countries go through," she said.

After working in Singapore, Crisanta decided to take advantage of the federal Live-In Caregiver Program in Canada which allows domestic workers to apply for citizenship after two years. Earning in a month what the average Filipino earns in a year, Crisanta worked as a caregiver in Vancouver.

After being granted Canadian citizenship, Sampang began to explore other options, pursuing the writing career she started in Singapore. She worked in TV, film and in the publishing industries. She has flourished in Canada and visits her family in the Philippines for several weeks every year. Working abroad enabled her to buy her family a house and property and send one of each of her brothers’ children to college with the understanding that they will help their siblings. Crisanta explains, "A Filipino nanny is not working for herself only, she’s working for everyone, first and foremost her children, then other family members."

In the internet, the book Maid in Singapore is described as "a book about the serious, quirky and sometimes absurd life of a domestic worker. It tells of why young women are forced to work overseas, to live, work and struggle amongst strangers. It speaks frankly about the aspirations, hopes and dreams of a whole race of people who bravely went where few would like to go."

Crisanta Sampang embodies the hopes and dreams, the struggles and successes of the millions of OFWs around the world. Rising from maid to best-selling author, she has become an inspiration to Filipinos everywhere. Truly, galing Pinoy!

( www.asianjournal.com )

( Published on January 10, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A7 )