Celebration After Our COPAR Exposure

There's always a rainbow after the rain.
But where's the rainbow in this picture??

At long last! Our 6-week COPAR Community Exposure has finally come to an end! And after every long stressful week, we all need a break. So all of us decided to go to the Buhisan Dam where you still have to ask for permission from the DENR because the place is protected.

This is what it looks like after entering the large gate of Buhisan Dam.

Nice view isn't it??

So this is the Buhisan Dam.

Umm.. okay.. Vanity Strikes again

Where is she, where is she, where is this beautiful girl

EMOTIONAL??

We really had a great time in the Buhisan Dam. I'm also gonna miss that very peaceful place. There's really more to it than what the pictures show but I just can't put it to words right now. Haay. Maybe I'm just too emotional becuase this will really be my last experience as a nursing student. This is really an experience worth remembering. Thanks to my classmates, my friends. ^_^

By the way, this was taken on the jeepney on our way home. The jeepney was full so we had no choice but to cling at the back. tsk3!

Feeding Program in the Community | COPAR

After our Community Health Teaching and our Operation Blood Pressure, another activity we had while on our COPAR experience is the Feeding Program. As you can see, I'm already in some of the photos so I'm inspired to blog about this one! This is one of the most fun experience we had in our COPAR because we get to mingle with a lot of kids and not only that, we have made them happy by our Feeding Program. This was held in the Sitio Nazareth Day Care Center so a lot of kids were really there waiting for their classes to start.

We have taken a lot of pictures so I don't need to narrate everything that happened because a single photo is worth 1000 words. And I don't think I have that 1000 words so let the pictures narrate the story. ^_^

While preparing for our Backdrop

and TADA! Our Feeding Program by Cebu Normal University Backdrop!

Now that it's all set up, let the program begin!

Dancing some kiddie songs! This was fun!

Oh no! Vanity strikes again. Tsk3!

Now that the program has ended, don't we get a Feeding Program too?? =D

COPAR Community Operation BP (Blood Pressure)

Another activity we had is our operation BP (Blood Pressure). Again, I'm not in the photos. So Sad. =c. I was somewhere up in the mountains, taking Blood Pressure on another area of the community. Anyway, here are some pictures of my classmates taking Blood Pressure.

Our 1st Day Of Community Organizing Participatory Action Research (COPAR)

Have you ever wanted to see a sight of Cebu like this one?

Before I talk about my experience on our first day of COPAR, you may want to check out first what COPAR Nursing really means.

Our first day of COPAR happened last Jan. 20, 2009. Yeah I know, this post is already too late, but don't care anyway. Hehe! I just have to post this one because it's one of my greatest experience in COPAR.

Our group was assigned in Barangay Buhisan, Sitio Nazareth, Cebu City for our COPAR Nursing. Before we arrived at the place, our Clinical Instructor already told us what to expect in there. he said that the place was settled in a Valley, and you can just see Mountains around you where most houses are settled. And he was right! We still actually have to climb mountains just to interview a family for our Family Health Assessment form! But this actually, is what makes COPAR so fun and exciting.

The first picture above was taken at the peak of the mountain we climbed on our first day. Very scenic right? But before you can reach that, you have to go through a series of "phases" first!

1st Phase: The Ascending Phase

That's steep you know! You may think it's easy but it's not! This is where we can test our BALANCE It's very easy to slip because of our shoes and because of the rocky road. Actually there were some who slipped that puts us to the next phase!

2nd Phase: The Sobbing Phase


See? I told you it's not that easy! Imagine if one falls, then all the other people behind might also fall! This phase is where we can test our FEARS and EMOTIONS.

3rd Phase: The Vanity Phase


Now that were at the top, all the fears, the anxieties and the sobbing are gone. But then, vanity strikes again! tsk3! I wonder what test this phase gave to us?? ?_?

4th Phase: The Descending Stage


Actually, climbing down the mountain is much harder than climbing up! This is where we can test the STRENGTH of our leg muscles!

Now, who said being a Nurse was all Boring Hospital Stuffs??

Community Organizing Participatory Action Research (COPAR) Nursing

Community Organizing Participatory Action Research (COPAR) - is a continuous and a sustained process of:

1. Educating the people - to understand and develop their critical consiousness
2. Working with people - to work collectively and effectively on their immediate and long term problems
3. Mobilizing with people - develop their capability and readiness to respond, take action on their immediate needs towards solving the long term problems

The process and structure through which members of a community are/or become organized for participation in health care and community development activities

Process:
- the sequence of steps whereby members of a community come together to critically assess to evaluate community conditions and work together to improve those conditions.

Structure:
- refers to a particular group of community members that work together for a common health and health related goals.

Emphasis of COPAR:

1. Community working to solve its own problem
2. Direction is established internally and externally
3. Development and implementation of a specific project less important than the development of the capacity of the community to establish the project
4. Consciousness raising involves perceiving health and medical care within the total structure of society

Importance of COPAR:

• COPAR maximizes community participation and involvement
• COPAR could be an alternative in situations wherein health interventions in Public Health Care do not require direct involvement of modern medical practitioners
• COPAR gets people actively involved in selection and support of community health workers
• Through COPAR, community resources are mobilized for selected health services
• COPAR improves both projects effectiveness during implementation

Phases of COPAR Process:

1. Pre-Entry Phase - is the intial phase of the organizing process where the community organizer looks for communities to serve and help. Acitivities include:

Preparation of the Institution

• Train faculty and students in COPAR.
  
• Formulate plans for institutionalizing COPAR.
• Revise/enrich curriculum and immersion program.
• Coordinate participants of other departments.

Site Selection

• Initial networking with local government.
• Conduct preliminary special investigation.
• Make long/short list of potential communities.
• Do ocular survey of listed communities.

Criteria for Initial Site Selection

• Must have a population of 100-200 families.
• Economically depressed.
• No strong resistance from the community.
• No serious peace and order problem.
• No similar group or organization holding the same program.

Identifying Potential Municipalities

• Make long/short list.

Identifying Potential Barangay

• Do the same process as in selecting municipality.
• Consult key informants and residents.
• Coordinate with local government and NGOs for future activities.

Choosing Final Barangay

• Conduct informal interviews with community residents and key informants.
• Determine the need of the program in the community.
• Take note of political development.
• Develop community profiles for secondary data.
• Develop survey tools.
• Pay courtesy call to community leaders.
• Choose foster families based on guidelines.

Identifying Host Family

• House is strategically located in the community.
• Should not belong to the rich segment.
• Respected by both formal and informal leaders.
• Neighbors are not hesitant to enter the house.
• No member of the host family should be moving out in the community.

2. Entry Phase - sometimes called the social preparation phase. Is crucial in determining which strategies for organizing would suit the chosen community. Success of the activities depend on how much the community organizers has integrated with the commuity.

Guidelines for Entry

• Recognize the role of local authorities by paying them visits to inform their presence and activities.
• Her appearance, speech, behavior and lifestyle should be in keeping with those of the community residents without disregard of their being role model.
• Avoid raising the consciousness of the community residents; adopt a low-key profile.
  

Activities in the Entry Phase

• Integration - establishing rapport with the people in continuing effort to imbibe community life.
  
  • living with the community
  • seek out to converse with people where they usually congregate
  • lend a hand in household chores
  • avoid gambling and drinking

• Deepening social investigation/community study
  • verification and enrichment of data collected from initial survey
  • conduct baseline survey by students, results relayed through community assembly

Core Group Formation

• Leader spotting through sociogram.
  

  Key persons - approached by most people
  Opinion leader - approach by key persons
  Isolates - never or hardly consulted

3. Organization-building Phase

Entails the formation of more formal structure and the inclusion of more formal procedure of planning, implementing, and evaluating community-wise activities. It is at this phase where the organized leaders or groups are being given training (formal, informal, OJT) to develop their style in managing their own concerns/programs.

Key Activities

• Community Health Organization (CHO)
  • preparation of legal requirements
  • guidelines in the organization of the CHO by the core group
  • election of officers
• Research Team Committee
• Planning Committee
• Health Committee Organization
• Others
• Formation of by-laws by the CHO
  

4. Sustenance and Strengthening Phase

Occurs when the community organization has already been established and the community members are already actively participating in community-wide undertakings. At this point, the different committees setup in the organization-building phase are already expected to be functioning by way of planning, implementing and evaluating their own programs, with the overall guidance from the community-wide organization.

Key Activities

• Training of CHO for monitoring and implementing of community health program.
• Identification of secondary leaders.
• Linkaging and networking.
• Conduct of mobilization on health and development concerns.
• Implementation of livelihood projects.