In March 2020, four months into her first teaching job in the UAE, the nursery where she worked closed its doors. It would not reopen until the end of the year. For Shara Joy Jolongbayan, a Filipina teacher who had landed in Abu Dhabi only the previous October, that meant roughly ten months with no work and no pay, a husband and a three-year-old daughter waiting back in the Philippines, and no clear sense of when any of it would end.
She had every reason to go home. The plan when she arrived had been straightforward: work, save, and eventually bring her family over. With the salary gone, the plan stalled.
“I had many reasons to go home,” Shara Joy shares with TGFM. “I had no idea when things would get better. But deep inside, my heart kept telling me, ‘No. Don’t give up.'”
She stayed.
Nearly seven years after arriving, the 33-year-old is an Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) teacher at one of the Aldar schools on Yas Island. Her husband and daughter now live with her in Abu Dhabi. And a Facebook page she started earlier this year has turned into a small, informal help desk for Filipino educators hoping to follow the same road.
She does not describe any of this as a success story, at least not only that.
“When I think about my journey, I do not see it as a story of success alone,” the EYFS teacher says. “I see it as a story of faith, sacrifice, perseverance and God’s faithfulness.”
A classroom before the crossing
Long before she was teaching four- and five-year-olds on Yas Island, Shara Joy stood in front of teenagers. In the Philippines, she taught English to junior high and senior high school students and coached them for English quiz bee competitions. The coaching sent her past the lesson plan and into the harder, quieter work of convincing young people they could hold their own.
“Those experiences helped me become more confident as a teacher and taught me that education goes beyond what happens inside the classroom,” the former English teacher says. “I enjoyed helping students discover their strengths and encouraging them to believe in themselves.”
When she talks about why she left, money is not the first thing she mentions. Faith is. “My decision to work abroad was deeply connected to my faith,” Shara Joy says. “I knew and I felt that God was leading me to the UAE. I believed that this was where He wanted me to teach and serve.”
Growth mattered too, and so did the prospect of a better life for her family. She is plain about that. But she frames the move as something closer to a calling than a transaction. “More than anything, I trusted that there was a purpose behind bringing me here,” she says.
She arrived in October 2019. By November, she had her first job abroad: nursery teacher at a small nursery operating out of a villa, on a monthly salary of AED 3,000. It was a long way, in more than one sense, from coaching senior high students for quiz bees. The children were younger, the setting smaller, the pay modest.
“It was a humble beginning but it gave me valuable experience in early years education,” the Filipina teacher says.
Then came March.
Ten months on hold
The closure came quickly, and it held. The nursery stayed shut until the end of December 2020, and Shara Joy was placed on a no-work, no-pay arrangement for about ten months.
Being new in a foreign country is hard enough with a steady paycheck. Without one, the math of daily life becomes relentless. And the reason she had come in the first place, to build enough of a foundation to bring her husband and daughter over, suddenly had nothing to stand on.
“My plan was to save money so I could eventually bring them here,” she explains. “When I suddenly had no salary for months, everything became uncertain.”
The people closest to her were also shifting. Her brother and sister-in-law had to relocate to Dubai for her brother’s work, and Shara Joy found herself learning to manage on her own in Abu Dhabi. The distance did not stop them from showing up for her. “I had to learn how to be independent but they continued to support me,” she says. “They always reminded me not to give up.”
Closer to home, three friends she had met in Abu Dhabi, Honey, Jane and Ruby, became what she calls her “core strength” through those months.
Still, there were stretches that no amount of encouragement could fully reach. “Being away from my husband and young daughter while worrying about my finances was not easy,” the mother says. “There were days when I felt lonely and worried about what would happen next.”
What carried her, by her own account, was faith and a deliberate narrowing of focus: one day, then the next. She stopped demanding answers the situation could not yet give her.
“That experience taught me something very important,” Shara Joy says. “Sometimes you do not need to have everything figured out. Sometimes you just need enough faith and courage to keep going.”
On paper, that line could pass for a poster slogan. Coming from someone who spent the better part of a year without a salary in a country she had barely settled into, with a toddler on the other side of the sea, it reads more like a field report.
Four workplaces, one direction
When the world began to reopen, Shara Joy’s career started moving, and it kept moving.
At her second nursery, she was given the role of curriculum coordinator, her first real responsibility beyond a single classroom. The job pulled her into the machinery of early years education: how learning is planned, how quality is measured, how a setting holds itself to a standard.
“This allowed me to take on responsibilities beyond my own classroom and gave me a deeper understanding of curriculum planning and quality teaching and learning,” the educator says.
Her next move took her to GEMS Education, where she became part of the Teaching and Learning Champion Squad. The role put her in the position of passing on good practice to colleagues while picking up new approaches from them in return. “I was grateful for the opportunity to share good practices with my colleagues and at the same time learn from other teachers,” Shara Joy says.
In January 2026, she started at her current school, an Aldar school on Yas Island that follows the British curriculum. It is her fourth workplace in the UAE, and she counts that progression, from a villa nursery to one of the capital’s larger school networks, as the highlight of her career so far.
“Each workplace taught me something different,” she reflects. “Every experience helped me become a better teacher and also prepared me for the next step in my career.”
Her days as an FS2 teacher go well beyond standing at the front of a room. She plans and delivers lessons built on the British curriculum, observes and assesses each child’s development, supports individual needs and keeps parents in the loop. Underneath all of it is a job that does not show up on any timetable.
“More importantly, I create a safe and happy environment where children feel confident to explore, learn and express themselves,” the EYFS teacher says.
What drew her to the school, she says, is its emphasis on developing children as whole people rather than as test-takers in training, along with steady training opportunities and school leaders who push their teachers to keep growing.
The work itself is what keeps her there. “I chose teaching because I genuinely love children,” Shara Joy says. “For me, teaching is more than just a job. It is something I am passionate about and something I am immensely proud of.”
FS2 sits at a formative point in a child’s life, and she is conscious of that. “As an FS2 teacher, I get to be part of the first few years of a child’s school experience,” she says. “I get to help shape little minds, build their confidence, encourage their curiosity and make their first experiences of school meaningful and positive.”
Ask her about the most rewarding part of the job and she does not point to awards or promotions. She points to small, ordinary breakthroughs.
“Sometimes it is the smallest things that make the biggest difference,” the Filipina teacher says. “A child who finally manages to do something independently or comes to you excited to tell you what they have learned can make your entire day.”
The family, finally in one place
For all the professional milestones, the moment Shara Joy returns to most often is a personal one. In December 2021, her husband and daughter joined her in the UAE.
“One of the happiest parts of my journey was being reunited with my husband and daughter in December 2021,” she says. “After being separated from them for some time, finally having my family together again was something I will always be grateful for.”
Today, they are a family of four building a life in Abu Dhabi. Her husband is also a teacher, a detail she clearly treasures.
“It is very special to share the same passion and love for education with my partner and to see us both working toward the same purpose of shaping young lives,” Shara Joy says.
Life in the UAE has given her other things she does not take lightly. She names the chance to work alongside colleagues from many nationalities, which she credits with making her more open-minded and adaptable. She also points to something more practical: access to quality healthcare. “Knowing that I can receive good medical care without having to worry too much about the financial burden of medical bills gives me peace of mind,” the mother says.
But the changes she values most are internal. Working abroad, she says, pushed her out of her comfort zone and made her “more independent, resilient and confident.”
That AED 3,000 starting salary still comes up when she talks about how far she has come. She does not disclose what she earns now, only that the gap is something she is proud of. “Today, I could not be more proud and grateful for how much I receive now and for how much I have grown along the way,” she says.
Paying it forward, one CV at a time
Earlier this year, Shara Joy began sharing her story more openly on Facebook, eventually setting up a page called Teacher Shara Joy. What started as personal posts has grown into a small community of Filipino educators, some already in the UAE, others still hoping to get there.
Through the page, she edits CVs for free, shares templates, and walks aspiring teachers through the documents and preparations they will need when applying for jobs overseas. She also passes along job-hunting tips drawn from her own years in the UAE.
The motivation is personal. She remembers what it was like to be on the other side of the application process.
“I know how it feels to hope for an opportunity and to wonder if someone will give you a chance,” the EYFS teacher says. “If I can help another Filipino educator get one step closer to their dream, then I feel that my own journey has an even greater purpose.”
The practical help matters, but she is just as interested in the message behind it. Many of the teachers who reach out, she suggests, are waiting until everything feels certain before taking the leap. She did not have that luxury.
“I want other teachers to know that you do not have to have everything figured out before you start,” Shara Joy says. “I did not have everything figured out when I arrived in the UAE in 2019. I started with a small salary and faced one of the most difficult periods of my life only a few months later.”
Her advice to fellow kababayans is blunt about the difficulty and generous about the possibility. Life abroad will test your work, your finances, your relationships and your resolve, she says, and there will be days you wonder whether you made the right call.
“Your first job may not be your dream job. Your first salary may not be what you hoped for. Your journey may take longer than you expected,” the Filipina educator says. “Keep learning. Save what you can. Be wise with your money. Choose the people you trust carefully. Do not be afraid to start small.”
The anchor, for her, has always been the reason she left. “For me, every sacrifice became more meaningful because I was not doing it only for myself,” she says. “I was doing it for my family and for the future I wanted to build with them.”
A school of her own, someday
Shara Joy’s plans extend past the UAE. Ever since she entered the profession, she has dreamed of building her own private school in the Philippines. She also hopes to work as an educational consultant, helping Philippine preschools improve their curriculum, provisions and learning environments, particularly in early years education.
The idea is to take what she has learned abroad and bring it home. She wants young Filipino children to grow “not only academically but also socially, emotionally and creatively,” the same holistic approach she has come to value in her current school.
“For me, success would not only be about how far I can go,” she says. “It would also be about how much I can give back.”
It is a long way from a villa nursery and a salary on hold. She is quick to say she is still learning. The mantra she lives by is less about arrival than about patience: “Keep the faith, keep going and trust God’s timing. What is meant for you will unfold in His perfect time.”
For the teachers now messaging her page, unsure whether to take the first step, her answer comes from experience rather than theory.
“Do not be afraid of starting small,” Shara Joy says. “Your beginning does not determine your destination.”
