LAURENCE RECEDO, THE SON OF AN OFW, needed to convert the dollar allowance he received from his mom to pesos while shopping for gifts over the holidays. Lucky for him, a money changer was right smack at the center of the mall he was in.

After getting his pesos, this 25-year-old call center agent whose mother is general manager of an ice cream parlor in Hawaii, was surprised to find that he did not have to go elsewhere to surf the Internet or pay his phone bills. He was inside an OFW Pamilya Center.

Located in Robinson’s Mall Dasmariñas in Cavite, the center has a remittance company, a money changer, an Internet shop and a telecommunications establishment— all primary services that OFWs and their families need regularly. All of them are in a zone also housing recruitment and travel agencies, pre-need institutions, real estate enterprises and a courier service, among others.

“It was really convenient for me,” Laurence said. “The fact that every thing that I needed was in one place inside a mall makes for a very innovative, exciting affair.”

Two months after its opening last November, the OFW Pamilya Center in Dasmariñas follows the first inaugurated by Robinson’s in Imus a month earlier. It has already serviced the needs of thousands of overseas workers and their families.

“We wanted to create a one-stop venue that would provide a support system for our kababayan abroad and their immediate and extended families in the country,” said Rose Ann C. Villegas, Robinsons Land’s corporate public relations manager.

Laurence, who visits the Dasmariñas mall a scant five times a year, said he just might frequent the place more often. “Now there’s an added reason for me and my family to go there. I don’t need to hop from one place to another to get the services I need because they’re all available in the center. I appreciate the fact that they built something like this for OFWs,” he said.

At 300-square meters, the OFW Pamilya Center also transforms into a venue for workshops and seminars on livelihood programs, microfinance and entrepreneurship— all aimed at promoting wealth management among OFW relatives like Laurence, to take the dollar remittances from loved ones abroad to a more productive direction.

The center also becomes an ideal place for OFWs who want to invest in property - real estate companies, with special packages specifically for OFW families, often conduct product launches there, Villegas said.

In the end, they want OFWs to stay in the country after earning their keep abroad, she stressed. “We want them to come home and invest, or come back to their roots. That’s why we’re setting up seminars to teach them how to use their money wisely and earn without having to go back abroad.”

Partner-government agencies are also present in a center now catering to up to 200 people a day.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administrations, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Pag-Ibig, the National Bureau of Investigation, Social Security System, and the Government Service Insurance System are all represented, facilitating more efficient document processing, loan applications, even providing counseling.

Not just business

But the OFW Pamilya Center is not just business. It’s also a place where OFWs and their families can relax, bond, and spend quality time together.

“With a dedicated area for chatting and eating, people really stay for a long time when they come to the place. And we’re happy about that because we want the center to be their second home,” Villegas added.

“I was in the center for an hour and already I was able to meet a girl whose dad is an engineer in the Middle East,” said Laurence. Indeed, this spacious place is cozy and friendly enough to be conducive for socializing as well, he added.

At the ground floor of the mall, the center provides accessibility not just to OFWs and their families but to all mall-goers.

Besides engineers in the Middle East, nurses, doctors, teachers and other contract workers in the US, Australia, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, among others, are already frequenting the center.

Laurence plans to go back to the center for its listing of job offerings abroad. Does he plan to work abroad like his mom? “I’m not closing doors. Should I decide to work overseas, I’d feel more comfortable knowing there’s a place like the center for me, my friends and family,” he said.