Model OFW FamilyBantay Bata 163’s longtime partner Teodoro delos Santos and his family received the 2018 Huwarang Overseas Pamilyang Pilipino Award in ceremonies held at Mövenpick Hotel.

Delos Santos is an ex-seminarian who worked with Task Force Detainees of the Philippines before he came to work in Saudi Arabia. His wife Sylvia was a former music teacher at St. Scholastica’s Academy.

In 2005, they launched Serenata, a nonprofit performing group composed of a children’s choir, string orchestra and male choir that has received different citations and awards for its world-class performances. In fact, Serenata was recognized with the Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino Award during the 2014 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas.

As part of its advocacy, Serenata has been partnering with Bantay Bata 163 through its Bantay Edukasyon program that sends deserving Filipino children to college.

As the winner of the search, the Delos Santos family will be automatically nominated to the Model OFW Family of the Year Awards or MOFYA, an annual nationwide search conducted by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to recognize outstanding families of Filipino migrant workers who have shown unity, financial stewardship, socio-civic involvement and entrepreneurship.

Huwarang Overseas Pamilyang Pilipino Awards is organized by the Philippine Consulate General and the Office of the Social Welfare Attaché in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Story/Photos by: A.T. Arceo)