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From a Dh2,000 secretary to Dubai businesswoman

Dubai - Street Talk: Her mother was a laundress and her father was a driver.

When Christina Cabading first landed in Dubai in May 2006, her fate was unknown.
The Filipina national grew up in a less fortunate family where finding food to eat and clothes to wear posed a lot of challenges.
Now the Managing Director of Amwaj Al Noor and Founder of C-OMEGA International in Dubai, 40-year-old Cabading pulled through many knockouts.
The Dubai expat is the eldest of three siblings. Her mother was a laundress and her father was a driver.
The family had no permanent home to live as they couldn't afford rent.
"Most of the landlords would forcefully open the door and force us to leave. When I wanted to have fun with my siblings, we would sneak to watch TV from outside our neighbor's window until they shoo us away," said Cabading.
"I remember asking for food from our neighbors because most of the time, we didn't have enough to eat."
From staying at their neighbor's garage to squeezing in their grandmother's small rented home in the Philippines, Cabading sold banana sticks on the streets to help her parents with income.
But as she reached 6th grade, Cabading made a promise to herself to be different from the neighborhood she grew up in.
"I had told my father that I wanted to study in a private school, he refused as he couldn't afford it. Not to his knowing, I applied to become a government scholar and I had passed."
After four years of high school struggling with limited resources, the Dubai expat landed a job during the last year of college in an international aviation company through which she was able to send her siblings to college and buy the family's first house.
Gathering enough savings and starting up her own tourism business in Philippines, Cabading flew to Dubai when her company shut down due to financial challenges.
She started as a secretary in a stock market business with a salary of Dh2,000, which was enough for rent, food and transport.
Soon enough, her hard work prompted her boss to promote her to an assistant, to eventually become the president of the company.
In early 2015, she started up her own tourism and real estate business running to this date.  
"My mantra is great passion, hard work, good values and work ethics are the qualities that make a good female leader in a world dominated by men," said Cabading.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com