More than twenty years ago, 44-year-old Filipina Melanie Manansala decided to leave the Philippines to assume a job in the UAE as a nanny. But her life has completely changed last year, when she won Dh70,000 (Php1 million) and the Arab region’s Best Nanny award.
Melanie bagged the award on November 2017, besting 500 other nominees from across the UAE. As per previous reports, she will take home a retirement fund worth 1 million pesos and a sponsored plane ticket back to the Philippines.
When she moved to Dubai in 1993, she earned Dh500 monthly. While she has always put aside money to support her family and some to her savings, she had planned to stay longer in the UAE as a nanny for four or five years more before returning to the Philippines for good. But her plans have now changed after winning the recognition last year.
“Winning that money last year has allowed me to head home for good, even earlier than planned,” she told Khaleej Times. “That winning fund was just a bonus. If I didn’t win it, I’d probably have to work for another four or five years before going home.”
This year is Melanie’s 25th year in Dubai. Her first and only job in the UAE has been as a live-in nanny. After bagging Dh70,000, enough as a starter retirement fund, Melanie is ready to retire and set to head back home soon.
“To save that money on my own would have taken about four years; that’s if I religiously put away Dh1,500 each month. So to receive it for my work as a nanny was humbling,” Melanie said.
It has long been Melanie’s dream to open her own mini supermarket in the Philippines once she returns home for good. And with the retirement fund of P1 million in her hands, she will soon be able to achieve her dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
“I don’t want to retire and just stop. If I stop working my body will stop working, so that is the next step for me, my own shop. I’ll go from looking after families in Dubai, to being the owner of a place where families come to shop. That makes me smile. I think God planned this for me.”
In 2016, another Filipina named Lorina Bunio also won the UAE’s Best Nanny Award. The award is organized and given by RISE, a UAE-based support network for migrant workers.
This year’s UAE’s Best Nanny award is now accepting nominations until November 10. Visit http://bit.ly/nannyawards to nominate individuals you think are deserving of the award.
