A Filipino caregiver in Israel says she feels it’s her “duty” to remain with her elderly employer, for whom she’s worked the last five months, despite the monumental tensions and instability in the region.
Lourdes Levi, who works in-home night shifts in Tel Aviv for a 96-year-old man with Alzeheimer’s, told NBC News that, while she feels fear, she doesn’t plan on leaving the area, regardless of how dangerous conditions may become amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
“It’s like a call of responsibility that we need to take for our employer. There’s nobody to take care of them,” Levi, 65, said. “And even on the other side of your mind, you want to leave and get yourself to safety, deep inside your heart, you are thinking about your employer.”
“Even on the other side of your mind, you want to leave and get yourself to safety, deep inside your heart, you are thinking about your employer.”
Lourdes Levi, a caregiver in Tel Aviv.
Levi is among roughly 30,000 Filipinos living in Israel, the majority of whom work as caregivers for the country’s aging population. Several caregivers of Filipino descent have already died in the violence in Gaza, the Philippines government confirmed. One of them, Angelyn Peralta Aguirre, was killed while taking cover with her employer in a bomb shelter, according to Filipino state media.
“Despite having a chance to flee the Hamas terror attacks, Angeline showed unbelievable humanity and loyalty by remaining by Nira’s side during the violence, resulting in both of them being brutally murdered by Hamas,” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said on X.
As of Monday, at least 1,400 have been killed in Israel and 5,087 in Gaza since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a multipronged attack on Oct. 7. Even though Tel Aviv is some 50 miles away from the epicenter of the violence, Levi, who’s been a caregiver in Israel for over two decades, said that the war has altered many aspects of her work. Rockets can…
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