Their reasons for leaving tend to surprise Philippine immigration officers.

In a country where practically every other household has a relative trying to earn bigger bucks abroad, they chose to go overseas not to seek greener pastures—but instead sow seeds of hope and opportunity where nothing much ever grows. But then, compassion thrives on stony ground.

Denis Vanguardia, for example, helped a poor community in Indonesia start livelihood programs. Liza Lopez worked with refugees at the border between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar), while Lea Acallar attended to HIV/AIDS patients in Nepal.

They are the overseas Filipino volunteers—“OFVs,” if you will—a largely unheralded but growing tribe of mission workers and global adventurers who devote a part of their lives helping other nations, and in the process develop a deeper appreciation of their own.

Jephonie Himmiwat is an Ifugao, one of the indigenous people in the northern Philippines. Her people and their land are inseparable, thus both are called by the same name, Ifugao. 

In Japan, two women enjoyed a very different upbringing. Twenty-three-year-old Kiyoko Okamoto spent four years as staff at the Mister Donut chain while she was studying international economics in the city of Fukuoka. Thirty-year-old Kozue Kamijo worked part-time in a restaurant while attending a business school in the Japanese capital.