About Me

I was assigned in the Education component during our CBH&R program. Being in the component was challenging because we had to draw the line and to clearly define what it means to be part of the education component for community based rehabilitation. Nevertheless, I believe that the goals and aims of our component with regards to this program were greatly implemented and addressed despite having numerous challenges along the way.

Personally, I believe one of the most challenging aspects in having a CBR program is the planning as this requires your attentiveness and your communication skills, be it conversing with your stakeholders or with your co-students. In addition, this requires our utmost attentiveness since your stakeholders are sharing their problems and their needs. I was both the powerpoint maker and the center volunteer during the Stakeholders meeting. As the powerpoint maker, I had to ensure that the visual powerpoint was well working, well-organized, concise, and aesthetically pleasing. It was a struggle to continuously change the layouting of the powerpoint since there were numerous revisions to be considered everytime we performed our dry runs. During the SH meeting, it was a huge challenge for me to be a center volunteer because I am a shy person. It naturally takes me time to be the first to initiate, but since we were volunteers, we had to be the first to interact and converse with our stakeholders. Not to mention we were handling both children and parents, hence the therapeutic use of self was greatly exercised. As a volunteer, it was indeed a challenge to make ends meet both for the virtual set-up from the on-site set up. When things get awry from the virtual aspect, we volunteers butt in and provide our services, be it in clarification, for entertainment, and for company. From the planning step of CBR, it taught me how to be adaptable, versatile, and ready at all times. With all the abrupt changes and challenges I’ve experienced, it surely is not easy to plan a CBR program. The multiple roles you have to adhere to just to ensure the meeting is going smoothly for everyone is a huge aspect in being a CBR worker. Although there are instances wherein situations are inevitable, sometimes you just have to ensure to have a back up plan; whether big or small, it is always better to have one than nothing at all.

In program designing, I admire how the divisions were done, most especially that everyone was eager to pitch in their ideas and suggestions. I was able to see how people were excited and quite motivated to provide programs and activities for the children of EHOPE. We were subdivided into three groups to generate three proposals, although my assigned proposal wasn’t picked, I was still thankful I got to experience brainstorming and creating activity proposals for these children. The chosen activity, “Play to Cope, Learn to Hope”, sparked my interest because of its witty name and also because of the goal of the activity, that is to use play as the medium for learning about their condition. Moreover, I really admire that even though we are focused on educating the children with different strategies to manage their conditions, the program itself was planned to be output-based. Thus, making the learning experience more fun and engaging.

During the program implementation, I was assigned in the marketing team wherein we are responsible for handing out invitations and other necessary documents to different people. I also volunteered for the visual powerpoint making since the team assigned were short-staffed due to different contributing factors. It was delightful to see the children enjoying and having fun with the activities we have provided for them. It was heartwarming that even though some of the kids recently got back from their medical appointments, they still continued to participate in our activities. Even though I was not part of the face-to-face team, their smiles and happiness can be felt beyond the screen and nothing feels more fulfilling than that. All in all, I believe that education program was a core memory, not just for those children in the center but for us as well.

Having the opportunity to experience CBR program planning and implementation is a huge leap for me as a student. In our previous years, we have always tried implementing small scale school-based programs with our audience just students, teachers, and the staff. However, now it’s different–this program is different. We are not only providing information and experience to them, but we are also imparting opportunities and hope within them. Hope, in a sense, that despite their disability and their condition, they are still part of the community, entitled to experience the things other children normally would. To be honest, this subject was most of the time confusing, since it requires extensive preparation for everything to go well smoothly. Not only that, your programs should be beneficial to your audience and will not merely see your program as a waste of time. With that said, I was able to admire and felt proud of the programs we have implemented for the eHOPE center. It sparks each and everyone’s uniqueness, creativity, and individuality. In addition, it shows that despite having the different challenges we experienced throughout the CBR subject, we were still able to put up a well-organized, fun, engaging, and fulfilling program.

This subject's culmination activity is definitely the first steppingstone of us being exposed into the real world. This subject is molding us to collaborate with one another, learn how to communicate with one another and to accept our mistakes to do better. As we journey into the future, may these learnings be embedded not just for personal reasons but also as future occupational therapists.