Boholana trafficking victim[/font][/size]is teacher awardee in USA[/size]A Boholana special children mentor who led hundreds of victim Filipino teachers in the successful historic class suit against professional trafficking in the United States has been named the Gawad Amerika Award winner this year.Mairi Mahal Nunag-Tanedo and her fellow recruits from the Philippines finally got justice after years of abuses by their recruiters when the US appeals court upheld late last year a jury’s earlier verdict in their favor.In the Philippines, she also led and won their Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) case against the recruiters.Tanedo is now teaching at the Hodgin Elementary School in Alburquerque, New Mexico, USA and an active US National Board for Professional Teaching Standards candidate.[/size]A native of Antequera, Bohol, Tanedo will be honored as the “Outstanding Filipino Teacher of the Year” during the 15th Gawad Amerika Awards at the Celebrity Center International in Hollywood, California today.Gawad Amerika started in 1996 as a US-based civic foundation “helping and cultivating the talents of young Filipino-American achievers who lack necessary resources to follow their dreams.”It also helped “struggling Filipino-American families with socio-economic opportunities that enable them to live with dignity and decent lives.”[/size]Years later, it started to honor the achievers, including exemplary Filipinos in the Philippines, who could “make a difference in their live and in their communities.”Before working in the US, Tanedo was with the congressional staff of Gov. Edgar Chatto during his stint as a member of the House of Representatives for the First District of Bohol.THE EDUCATORA licensed teacher in the Philippines, Tanedo has taught children with special needs for already more than a decade.[/size]Her first US teaching assignment was at the East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS) in Louisiana in 2008.In less than a year, she was able to acquire both the state’s certification and highly-qualification status in the area of Special Education (SpEd) by passing all the required assessments.She also earned her administration’s confidence and peers’ respect and was then appointed as the lead teacher in 2009.[/size]Further, Tanedo became the site facilitator whose main focus was to ensure that the Individual Education Plans (IEPs) of all students were in place and implemented.[/size]She was awarded the Brotherhood/Sisterhood Award in 2011 and Teacher of the Year Award in 2012.From 2009 to 2013, she facilitated and staged SpEd programs that showcased kids’ talents in singing, dancing and acting.THE VICTIMTanedo was one of over 300 Filipino teachers recruited to teach in Lousiana public schools and work under the H-1B guest worker visa program.[/size]But the recruitment agencies and their agents “misled” the teachers from whom were demanded “millions of dollars in fees.”They were each made to pay up to $16,000, or more than P780,000 by the current exchange rate.[/size]The Boholana and her fellow teachers incurred huge debts and the recruiters tried to silence them with threats of legal action and deportation.They were lured to teach in Louisiana public schools, then cheated out of tens of thousands of dollars and forced into exploitive contracts.Nearly all of them had to borrow money to pay exorbitant recruiting fees---even were referred by the recruiters to private lenders charging up to 5 percent in monthly interest.They were forced to pay additional fees after they had already made substantial investments that would not be returned.The recruiters confiscated their passports and visas until they paid.[/size]The teachers were also forced to sign away an additional 10% of the salaries they would earn during their second year of teaching.[/size]Those who resisted signing the contracts were threatened with being deported and losing the thousands of dollars they already paid.[/size]Tanedo stood out among the over 350 abused teachers, figuring as the lead plaintiff in what would become the first-ever certified class trafficking lawsuit in the US against professionals (Mairi Nunag-Tanedo vs EBRPSS School Board, et al).Despite the case against the school authorities and the recruiters, the EBRPSS teachers’ organization awarded the Boholana for her capacity and dedication.On behalf of the over 350 teachers, with Tanedo as lead plaintiff, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed the federal class legal action with the US District Court for the Central District of California in 2010.The case went to trial in 2012 until a jury ordered the labor recruiter to indemnify the teachers with $4.5 million, which ruling was upheld by the US appeals court in December last year.The teachers were also awarded what Tanedo called “trafficking visas bridging to green cards.”[/size]They also won their cases at the Louisiana Work Commission and POEA.THE TEACHERTanedo is presently teaching at the Hodgin Elementary School, a “Title 1” school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.[/size]She writes grants, requests and initiates resource generation to ensure that her students have access to technology and high quality education.[/size]Tanedo has produced iPads, desktops, robotics kits, reading programs, and a mini multi-cultural resource library in her classroom.She has brought in speakers and trainers so that her students have the exposure and experience to various subject matters.Recently, Tanedo finished with honors her Masters of Arts in Teaching at the National University in La Jolla, California.[/size]In the Philippines, she earned degrees in Special Education, Early Childhood Education, and Business Administration from various colleges and state universities.[/size]Tanedo was a prime organizer of the Filipino Educators Federation of Louisiana (FEFL) and even awarded the 2010 Humanitarian Award by the East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers – American Federation of Teachers (AFT).Admired by her peers for her welfare activism and service orientation, Tanedo is a member of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) International Collegiate Service Fraternity and Sorority.She has two gifted children who now stay with her in the US and have been both granted full scholarship in a nationally-ranked co-educational, college preparatory day school for talented students in grades six to twelve.[/size]The Boholana, whose father, Moises Morgia Nunag, has been based in Washington state, is a niece of Antequera Kag. Lil Nunag. (Ven rebo Arigo)
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