Hi… I’m 23, and I don’t even know how to start this without my voice shaking. Every single night, I curl up in my little corner of our house, and the tears just won’t stop flowing. All I want – all I’ve ever wanted – is to get to Australia to work. Not for me… never for me. I just need to find a way to lift my family out of this poverty that’s been suffocating us for as long as I can remember.

Life here in the Philippines… it breaks my heart. We stretch every peso until it’s paper-thin, but no matter how hard we work, the wages just aren’t enough. There are days we skip meals so the younger ones can eat. I watch my parents – they’re getting older, their backs aching more each day, their hands rough from years of toil – and it kills me that this is all they’ve ever known. They gave me everything they had so I could finish college… I pushed through sleepless nights and empty stomachs to graduate, because I promised myself I’d give them the life they deserve.

But I have no one to help me. No savings, no relatives who can lend me money for papers or tickets. Some nights I lie awake asking why life has to be so cruel to people who work so hard. Why does it feel like the door to a better future is locked, and I don’t even have a key?

I keep holding on to this tiny flicker of hope – that maybe, just maybe, there’s a way to get sponsored to work in Australia. It’s the only thing keeping me going… because if I can’t do this for them, what good am I? They’ve given me their whole lives. I just want to give them back even a little bit of comfort…