Mummy, will you ever come home?

Dubai: Mercedita moved to Dubai to work as a nanny for a three-year-old, driven by the need to save money for heart surgery for her own three-year-old child.

After leaving her family in the Philippines less than a year ago, mass communications graduate and mother of three, Mercedita, 45, says she cannot even bring herself to tell them that she has taken a job as a maid.

"It is so sad when I call on Friday and my son wants to talk to me - sometimes I can't bring myself to. When they surprise me and call out of the blue, I cry. I have to be in the right frame of mind," she said.

As families across the Arab World celebrated Mother's Day yesterday, women working as maids in the UAE expressed their anguish at being separated from their children, and say they survive on memories alone.

Among them is Karema - a 35-year-old Indonesian and mother of two teenage boys - who says that this Mother's Day she did not even know the whereabouts of her eldest son.

"My son has developed a habit of not listening to me because he has grown up without me and this year he just decided to move to another city without even leaving any contact details," the widow said.

Karema's younger son is meanwhile being cared for by her sister.

Vilma Villanueva, 38, from the Philippines, is the mother of two children - Andrea, seven, and Angel, two.

Shortly after Angel was born, she moved to Sharjah to work for a family, and like many others has not seen her children since.

"When I moved here it was the first time that I had been away from my family ... It is very sad when I see mothers with their children - I feel like crying."

Eva Aparapon, a 25-year old-mother of a four-year-old daughter, is employed by a Jordanian family with three children, the youngest of which is seven- months old.

"Whenever I see the baby I cannot help thinking about my daughter and I remember how she was when she was the same age," says Aparapon.

Sri Lankan maid and mother of three, Indrani Wijelatha, 40, says she is always concerned about her children.

"I always think of them and wish I was with them, especially on Mother's Day, but I cannot go yet - I have to ensure that they can have a better life."

Do we tend to forget that they are mothers, too? Have they become dehumanised, as people rarely get the opportunity to see them with their families?