Episode 166: Kent Donguines

The YVR Screen Scene Podcast

Kalinga (Care) is about the tens of thousands of women who leave the Philippines each year to work in Canada and other countries as nannies and caregivers. Since the 1970s, the Philippines has pursued aggressive labour-export campaigns, perhaps more so than any other country on Earth. It’s why we have the Live-in Caregiver Program in Canada, which has brought many Filipino women to Canada to work as nannies and caregivers. Often these women are mothers who must leave their children in the Philippines in order to raise other people’s children overseas, and they do so to send money back to the families they left behind. But there are human costs for this aggressive focus on labour-export – and it can come in the form of loneliness and broken families. In Tagalog, “kalinga” means care – and Kent Donguines’ compassionate, intimate, and revealing documentary (currently screening as part of the 2021 DOXA Documentary Film Festival) elevates and amplifies the traditionally untold stories of caregivers and nannies in Canada. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment