For overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) separated from their families, the balikbayan box — a tax-free gift box shipped back to the Philippines — is more than a care package. It's a gesture of presence across distance, a way of saying "I remember you" through carefully chosen everyday items: soap for neighbours, toys for nieces and nephews, a pillow sprayed with a mother's perfume for her children back home.
This story follows OFWs in Singapore as they spend months selecting and packing these boxes, many choosing to do so at delivery companies in Lucky Plaza on their days off. Demand for the boxes surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel restrictions left many unable to return home at all — making the boxes the closest thing to a visit they could offer.
The project explores how a humble cardboard box becomes a vessel for love, sacrifice and longing. And how, for those who send them, it's never really about the price tag.
