01.09.2026

Smiles Success Stories: Jelly Pie’s Life from Poverty to Prosperity

Meet Jelly Pie!
Hardships and challenges that made you a stronger person
Proudest moment(s) since starting your journey living abroad
Life lessons and advice for living overseas
Join the Smiles Family
Be more inspired and read more success stories here

Smiles Mobile Remittance, known as Japan’s most popular global mobile money transfer service, is dedicated to supporting hardworking individuals who send money overseas to their families back home. Smiles help create a better life for people working abroad and promote peace and sustainability within the international community.

Loved by loyal customers since the beginning, Smiles is now excited to “Share Smiles” by telling inspiring stories from users worldwide. These stories showcase how Smiles Mobile Remittance provides its service to people determined to achieve their dreams and support their loved ones, no matter where they are.

Meet Jelly Pie!

I was born and raised in Tina-an, a city of Naga, Cebu, Philippines. I had big dreams in life. I wanted to finish school and go to college. One of my dreams was to become a teacher. For me, teaching is a great profession, that’s what I had in my mind when I was in high school. But sadly, I couldn’t go to college because of my financial situation. After I graduated from high school, I decided to apply for a job so I could help my family.

I worked as a sales associate in a department store for two years. After that, I worked as a sales promoter of a clothing brand for 5 years. It seemed like nothing had changed in my life. I was just focused on one job, which is a sales promoter; I wanted something to change. I didn’t want to stay at my job for too long. So one of my co-workers encouraged me to apply for a job abroad. We decided to apply to an agency as factory workers in Japan, but unfortunately, I was not accepted because my birth certificate was not registered. During that time, Japan did not accept late registration of birth certificates, so it was like I lost hope.

At that time, I just kept praying that one day I would be able to work abroad. Then one year later, my friend who worked as a factory worker in Japan introduced me to his friend, who is a Japanese guy; we became friends, and he visited me in the Philippines. We started dating, he proposed to me, and we got married. And he took me to live in Japan with him. Now, I work in a factory near my place in Edogawa.

Hardships and challenges that made you a stronger person

The hardest thing I went through before was when I was in elementary and high school, and we were literally poor. We experienced that we only ate once a day and our house had no electricity. When it rained, our house was flooded with rain water and we went to school without food. We heard our parents fighting because of poverty, so I keep in my mind and promise to myself that one day I would be able to make money and provide all the needs of my family, which is why I studied hard in school. During that time, I asked my teachers if I could sell something in the classroom so that I could have money to buy school supplies and school projects until I graduated from high school.

I carried the hardship of my life with me, and I put up in my mind to do my best and never lose hope so that we wouldn’t have to go through the hardship of life again.

Proudest moment(s) since starting your journey living abroad

Since I was here, abroad, many things have changed in my life; not just mine, but also for my family. I am proud to say that I was able to buy/build a house for my family and provide for their needs. I’m proud to say that I brought my mom and niece here to Japan to show them and experience the culture and beauty of Japan. I was able to buy them what they wanted. And lastly, one of my proudest moments here abroad is that I have a job and I’m happy with my life, together with my supportive husband.

Life lessons and advice for living overseas

I have learned so many lessons and gone through so many challenges regarding living my life abroad. I’ve had to learn to become more confident, how to speak new languages, how to deal with new people, and be independent in an unfamiliar world, and much more.

Living abroad can be an expensive, frustrating, confusing, lonely, stressful, and disappointing experience. It can also be wonderful, enriching, fulfilling, and excellent for your personal and professional development journey. It can be both good and bad at the same time. I’ve learned that continually improving your language skills is one of the best things you can do to help the process of living overseas.

Lastly, one of my pieces of advice if you want to live abroad or move overseas, you should follow their rules and just be honest and humble.

Join the Smiles Family

Smiles strives to “Share Smiles” all over the world and aims to connect migrant workers in the international community. To join the Smiles Family in Japan, Canada and/or Singapore and follow one of the Smiles Facebook fan pages: