At Home sa Abroad: TOYM awardee Hyku Desesto on making her mark overseas

Rappler sits down with TOYM 2023 awardee Hyku Desesto, a self-made creative director and OFW empowerment advocate based in Dubai

MANILA, Philippines – Let’s say you have a career you want to pursue abroad. If you didn’t have any connections to that industry in the country you planned to move to, would you still go?

Filipina entrepreneur Khrista Francis Desesto, or Hyku, did that more than a decade ago. She packed her bags from her home in Davao and flew to Dubai, where she was determined to pursue a career in photography.

Now, even in her success as a creative director with her own globally recognized brand – partnering with big names like Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, and Adidas – she never forgot the community she came from.

In the first fully in-person episode of At Home sa Abroad: Stories of Overseas Filipinos, Rappler multimedia reporter Michelle Abad sits down with Hyku Desesto, one of the awardees for the Junior Chamber International Philippines’ The Outstanding Young Men of 2023. She was recognized for her advocacy in overseas Filipino worker (OFW) empowerment.

Watch as Hyku shares her story of humble beginnings as an OFW who simply wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps as a media man, and complete their family abroad.

As she built her own company, she made sure to keep Filipino newcomer-workers a priority, even if business-wise, this risked a disadvantage. All this, while making time for her family, and finding ways to give back to her community.

Catch the episode on Monday, April 15, at 7 pm, Manila time. – Rappler.com

Watch other At Home sa Abroad episodes:

• How this leadership program helped Fil-Ams connect with their roots
• Inside a migration reporter’s notebook
• The Filipino diaspora through a migrant’s eyes
• Is exporting Filipino workers a good thing?
• Tales of Martial Law, People Power from migrant Filipinos
• The plight of overseas Filipino women
• Navigating the int’l film industry as a Filipino woman
• Why do so many Filipinos go abroad to work?
• Filipino mom and daughter champion diversity in US
• Commemorating Independence Day as a Filipino abroad
• 1 year of Marcos’ migration governance
• Realities of Filipina marriage migration
• The road ahead for Rechie Valdez, first Filipina in Canada’s Cabinet
• How this seafarer turned lawyer fights for OFWs at sea
• OFWs’ personal finance 101
• Making space as Filipina lawyers in the United States