Filipina helper showcases her art talent in HK

To uplift her family from poverty, Donna Sagudang left her impoverished life in Baguio City for a more upscale life, though working as a domestic helper, in Hong Kong.

Looking after her employer’s family for six days a week, Sagudang spends her day off sketching portraits of cartoon characters and celebrities, something she dreamed of when she was young.

“I wanted to study art when I was a kid, but I did not have the pencils, which were very expensive in the Philippines,” Sagudang told Asia Times. “I came to Hong Kong in 2014 and started drawing during rest time last year.”

She began drawing faces of popular cartoon characters and personalities, including Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach, singer Joao Constancia, and actress Jessy Mendiola. Friends began requesting her to draw their portraits after sighting her artworks posted on social media.

But her artistic talents were fostered more when her employer asked her to paint their house in Yuen Long district. She was free to sketch and paint pictures on the walls, doors and on the garden floor. The results made her employer’s family ablaze.

Sagudang feels homesick all the time, but she insisted on continuing to work as a domestic helper in Hong Kong to help her siblings. For the past few years, she sent all her earnings for her younger brother’s college education. “I came from a big family with seven siblings. We used to support the younger ones,” she told the news site.

Now that her brother is graduating this year, Sagudang hopes that someday she can enroll in a formal art class and nurture her talents.  Gianna Francesca Catolico /ra