Get to know our TAP MAMAs awardee, MK Bertulfo, the founder of Filipina Homebased Moms
To celebrate International Women’s Month, we bring you The Asian Parent’s Marvelous Asian Mums Awards or TAP MAMAs. We will feature 20 inspiring mothers who made a meaningful contribution to improving the lives of moms and other women alike. Get to know our TAP MAMAs awardee, MK Bertulfo, a champion for Pinay work-at-home moms.
What can you read in this article?
- Who is MK Bertulfo, Filipina Homebased Moms founder?
- FH Moms projects and programs to help Pinay work-at-home moms
- MK’s thoughts about motherhood
Gone are the days when a mother only has to choose between becoming a full-time mom to take care of the kids or a career woman to support her family financially. Now, stay-at-home moms can have the best of both worlds by working at home.
Here in the Philippines, one woman pushed the envelope by advocating and providing opportunities for work-at-home moms – our TAP MAMAs awardee, Maria Korina “MK” Bertulfo.
MK is the CEO and founder of Filipina Homebased Moms, a support group that aims to help Filipina stay-at-home moms find online jobs that are suitable to their lifestyle.
The group, which now has over 150,000 followers on Facebook hopes to empower women by offering training, short courses, and job opportunities that they can do while taking care of their families at home.
A Community for Filipina Homebased Moms
What started MK’s journey to work at home was the plight of every working mom. Reporting to an eight-hour job plus having to brave the metro’s traffic made her miss a lot of her son’s milestones. So she resigned from her office job and began working online as a virtual assistant and social media manager.
“It’s really a fulfillment to be able to witness your kid’s milestones. But being a mom does not just end there. You also have to offer something to the table. The desire to be a career woman and a mother at the same time deeply inspired me to do what I do,” MK shared.
Image from MK
But working at home has its own challenges. MK struggled with her duties as a hands-on mom with a career. She desired to find virtual friends with who she can relate and share her experiences with.
Other moms started approaching MK for help, seeking advice on how to successfully transition into working at home. Eventually, their questions became more difficult and beyond her knowledge. So she sought the help of other moms who have been freelancing for years.
Because of her early struggles as a work-at-home mom, MK saw the need for a community for mothers who want to explore a home-based career. That’s when she started the Filipina Homebased Moms group on Facebook. Soon, other opportunities started pouring in. Companies saw the importance of what she was doing and wanted to work with her.
“It all started with this community. It grew exponentially until opportunities came my way. I started building my virtual team. Many organizations and brands started to tap us and pitched their interest to be partners. No one thought that our community would prosper as it is now.”
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MK’s advocacy and vision for FH Moms
Image from iStock
Now one of the biggest communities on Facebook for Pinay freelancers, FH Moms, with MK’s leadership, turned into a social enterprise.
Their team of digital marketing experts and trainers host free webinars, offer short courses, and even one-on-one coaching for women who want to work on their skills and improve their chances of getting an online job. They also partner with different companies and help them recruit qualified people in their field.
Last November, FHMoms launched Computer Rent-to-Own. It is an initiative that helps moms acquire their own laptops so they can start working and earning from home, and pay for it on an installment basis.
They also teamed up with celebrity mom Bianca Gonzales for Wifi Para Kay Nanay, where they gave away 50 Wifi units along with three months’ worth of internet data to some lucky work-at-home moms.
MK attributes all this success to her family, without whom she can withstand anything and the moms in her community that encourages her to keep working hard. “Mommies tell me about their success and how happy they are (in their current setup) and that pushes me to do what I do every day.”
In the next five years, she hopes that FH Moms will become the largest virtual community of empowered women. “FH Moms, Inc. will be a one-stop-shop for freelancers. We will have the courses, then the job opportunities will (also) be available in our platform,” she adds.
Motherhood is not the end game
Image from iStock
Through her work with FH Moms, MK wants to continue inspiring other Pinay work-at-home moms by showing them that having a home based career is possible and they too can inspire others.
“All they have encountered and felt as a mom, a woman, I may have experienced already. Their hardships and success are familiar experiences to me. All I want them to do is to give back to the community by empowering other women as well.”
On the topic of motherhood, MK defines it as an endless learning curve and a never-ending but fulfilling experience. “Being a mom is not the end game, so they better prepare for a bigger life once they become moms.”
When asked for her reaction to being recognized by TAP, she believes that any woman that makes a difference and creates an impact deserves the award. “A dedicated and empowered woman will really go a long way.”