About Me

During the implementation of the CBR program, I was a member of the Education Component where the goal is to provide accessible and inclusive learning for people with disabilities.

Planning CBH&R Programs

The education component was quite relevant for the selected community since most of the participants were kids who are either ongoing or stopped going to school. Based on the stakeholders meeting, there were a lot of factors that influenced their engagement and motivation to go to school. One of which is their condition wherein chemotherapy makes them feel weak and tired thereby compromising their educational performance. Another factor was that their schedules shift from time to time because of COVID-19 safety measures.

Planning CBHR programs was the most difficult step for me because we had to identify and choose one problem out of everything that was mentioned. In addition to that, our initial stakeholder meeting did not garner enough information to answer our questions. It was a struggle for our part since the participants in the center changes from time to time therefore making data gathering a challenge. As for my role, I was tasked to speak and interpret the results of the survey. Even if I had a script and prepared my speech beforehand, I was kind of nervous when I talked in front of my classmates and the E-hope participants. Results of the survey indicated that students learn better through live discussions, reading and writing and that they prefer learning with other children. It also helped the E-hope has internet and art materials that can help us when we plan to implement our program

Designing the CBR program

Our group was divided into three sub-groups and we were tasked to create a program based from th e problems we have identified. The proposal in which me and 2 of my groupmates created were selected for implementation. The proposal was all about educating and training both the parents and children relaxation techniques through play activities. It was a struggle to find fun activities that will match their age group however, we were able to decide that we will be doing a painting and stress-ball making activity.

Planning for the program took the most part of my role because our proposal was selected. This meant that I had more background and knowledge with what we were trying to implement. Play to Cope, Learn to Hope was also one of my ideas and it felt great because my groupmates agreed to my suggestion the moment I presented it. I based these activities from the Cognitive Behavioral Frame of Reference since our aim is to help the children have better coping mechanisms and to improve their attitude towards their condition. Through this frame of reference, relaxation strategies are taught to help the children calm themselves and help them function better in school. This was why the first activity was a breathing activity, second was painting and the last one was stress ball making.

Implementing CBH&R Programs

During the implementation of our program, I was the screensharer of our powerpoint. It was a struggle on my part because some of the technical team members were assigned to different parts. Screen Sharing was a large part of the program because it is basically the highlight; what everyone sees during the implementation. My team was also assigned to do the technical script and it was fortunate that we had a copy from our previous technical program. We also experienced minor inconveniences along the way because the kids did not arrive on time. My group mates and I had to devise a plan in order to keep the audience entertained so we spontaneously did an informal guess for the song quiz. Along the way, I have also noticed that we were not anymore able to keep track of the time however, we were still able to end on time.

My experience for the entire implementation was a mix of anxiousness and fulfillment. Since I was the screen sharer, I had a big role to fill and any slight minor technical inconvenience, is directed to us. But because of being the screen sharer, I was able to carefully observe the program in general. I saw how the kids enjoyed each activity and how they interacted with some of my classmates and this brought a sense of fulfillment in me knowing that we made a program that made these little kids smile. We also felt satisfied and happy with the feedback of our instructors because according to them, they too, had fun watching the kids during the program implementation.

Growing up as a timid individual, interacting with people of different walks of life was a huge confidence leap. This even made me question why I chose occupational therapy knowing full well that this course required a lot of interactions. There were a lot of safer courses, ones that matches my personality but what is life without going out of my comfort zone? As they all say, life happens at the end of your comfort zone and you would not know if you would like it if you have not tried it. Through my course- occupational therapy, the opportunity to be of service to the marginalized, finally presented itself and I am more than happy to extend help to people with disabilities or generally to those who need help within the community.

I am a part of the education component and I took part in making the planning, designing and implementing our program. The hardest part of them all was definitely the planning part because there were a lot of problems to focus on and choosing only one of them was a difficult decision. Of all the meetings, the stakeholder’ meeting was the most difficult one because there were only a few participants therefore the entirety of the participants’ problems was solely based on the responses of 3 people. It may not have been a sufficient sample size but we worked our way through it. Although planning the program was quite taxing, it became more bearable because we finally had a direction. We already identified the problems that we are going to target as well as the goals for the program. We weren’t as lost as we initially were and the planning went on smoothly. Same goes with the implementation of the program. Although there were slight inconveniences, everything was managed and covered up nicely to the point that it was not even noticeable.

As a viewer of the other group’s programs, I felt proud with the way my classmates implemented it. They show experience and proficiency in hosting, managing the technical team, recruiting speakers for the event and of course, planning the entire program flow. Handling an online and onsite program is a tedious task knowing that we all had to organize both settings. I know their struggles because we, too, have experienced it, therefore I am so happy that they were able to invite relevant speakers and make the program as engaging as possible. For the health component, they invited an occupational therapist speaker who talked about the importance of health and how to incorporate it in our day-to-day activities. My classmates also taught the parents some transfer techniques and it was quite fulfilling to hear that most of the parents were grateful because they never knew that there were more appropriate ways to transfer their child from one place to another. Same goes with the livelihood component, I was amazed and inspired by their speaker who started a business from scratch. It made me realize that hard work really does pay off with the right attitude and trust of oneself. The tote bag making activity was also fun to look at, seeing how kids enjoyed painting and presenting the tote bags that they made. It was not just a fun activity for the kids but also a livelihood opportunity for the parents since some of them wanted to become a reseller and wanted to contact the speaker for business ventures

To conclude everything I have said, I have seen how my classmates and I improved when it comes to making programs and interacting with people in general. However, the steps toward reaching this point were not as easy as it looks since creating a program required teamwork, dedication, and communication. We all had to make mistakes along the way, get reprimanded and sometimes settle with a substandard output but because we are aware that we are works in progress, we try to get better. Teamwork is quite evident while observing all 3 CBR programs, that there were different committees and within each committee, each person had a role. This subject is merely preparing us for the real world, for what we have to go through as occupational therapists in the future. All the successes and failures I have gone through were worth it because it molded me to become a more responsible, hardworking and compassionate person.