About Me

I was appointed as one of the members of the Empowerment Component of the CBH-R program. Along with the perseverance and determination of my members, we were able to successfully implement the program “Play to Cope, Learn to Hope” with the goal to empower the children of E-Hope foundation through meaningful child-centered, play-based activities. Prior to having the program implementation, together with my groupmates, I had the task to help out on the questions that will be carried out for the surveys during the stakeholders meeting. Making the questions was not easy as we were still undecided on whom to address them to, whether the parents or the children. As well as translating them into pure Bisaya was also very challenging since there were terms that were also hard for us to understand. It was also difficult for us at first to come up with a plan as to how to disseminate the surveys since only a few of the participants answered the online survey forms. Which led us for a plan B, which was to give them physical copies of the surveys directly at the center. The whole experience of planning and gathering data was a tedious task to do but very fulfilling to acquire. My contribution to the program's design was that it was a collaborative effort with my component members. It took us a long time to figure out what our program would be since we were having trouble coming up with something that would both benefit the children and aid them in their lives. In coming up with the program to be implemented, I was assigned with a sub-group to help come up with 3 program proposals for our component. We came up with an Online Concert Fundraising Program. However, together with constant brainstorming with everyone in the group and internalizing the feedback from our instructors it made us realize that it is not feasible given the tight schedule that we had, that is why partnering up with a different component was the most efficient thing to do. Eventually, with the collaboration of the education component, we were able to come up with the whole program plan for “Play to Cope, Learn to Hope”. I was in charge of coming up with the monitoring tool that will eventually be used for the succeeding steps of the program. I really had fun while planning for the program since we really thought that it was refreshing, new, and fun to do for the whole batch. Personally, I was assigned to the Marketing Committee. Through the committee that I belonged to, we were able to generate the invitations to be disseminated to the E-Hope staff and participants, instructors, and our batchmates. As well as their consents on making it through the program. Making the tasks for our committee was smooth flowing since everyone communicates well with one another. During the day of the program implementation, I was a host for a certain activity for the children. Since it was the children that were our target population, the challenge was to get their attention to which I can say I was able to pull it off. I really had fun hosting the activity and being able to interact with the children. Hosting the activity made me be more engaged and interactive in the things that they were doing even though I am far away from them and they can only see me through the screen.

At the beginning of this semester, I was new to what community-based health and rehabilitation were. My prior understanding of the overviews from the previous semester was not that bad, but they needed some fine tuning. A lot of the knowledge I have retained was just shallow. Filling out the main ideas was just the brink of an iceberg. To have come to know them on an in-depth point of view was where the challenging part had come and it made me lay down a strong foundation for a long path ahead of me. Alongside that, I have always been interested in the kind of service that occupational therapists do in the real setting.

These past few weeks, the last weeks of the semester, was a rollercoaster ride. A ride full of raw emotions, fun and exciting, but at the same time multiple breakdowns and cups of coffee were needed. Further, to end the finals week, the program implementation was done. I can say that I was more prepared and confident on our program since I know that my group mates got my back, especially since I was tasked to be the host facilitator for an activity. As a final completion of this course, a capstone project was given to us. Making the capstone for a few days was really formidable and it really requires both physical and mental effort. However, while making the capstone it made me look back on the experiences that we all have encountered throughout the semester in order to produce a program that is worthwhile for the children of E-hope foundation. It was really an impactful and emotional capstone making for me especially when I was almost done on the finishing touches. Now, this semester has come to an end, it’s time for me to recharge my physical, mental, spiritual needs, to spend time with people that really matter to my life, and to feel alive in general.