#Community Health Workers

[townpostin]

Nutrition Assistants Rejoice with Dumka MLA After Service Reinstatement

Poshan Sakhis celebrate with Dumka MLA Basant Soren at Khijuria residence. Nutrition assistants in Dumka, after two years of demanding reinstatement, have had their services restored, leading to a joyful celebration with local MLA Basant Soren. DUMKA – Nutrition assistants celebrated their reinstatement by playing Holi with MLA Basant Soren in Dumka. Following the reinstatement of their services,…

[sunnunderthesun]

Must it be this difficult to survive as a Community Health Worker?

The Ministries of Health in the Global South and billionaire-run charitable organisations reportedly face "several constraints" when it comes to paying the community health workers, most of them underprivileged women, they're heavily reliant on in executing their respective big-budget healthcare programmes. But the organisations actively promote their concern for the health and wellbeing of other impoverished women.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has granted funds to Women in Global Health "to research the status of women's leadership in the health sector in Nigeria, Kenya and India". However, the foundation hasn't yet been able to move on any further from "thinking critically" about how to support the community health workers.

Only 25% of women occupy leadership positions in health globally when over 65% of jobs in the health sector are held by women. About six million female health workers hardly receive any financial compensation for their life-saving services. Despite being the only source of primary health care to the poorest sections of the society, many community health aides have no access to transport facilities that would enable them to deliver their services in a timely manner without having to exhaust themselves by walking long distances to visit the targeted households. In regions plagued by conflict, these workers find it even more challenging to help the sick in the absence of essential supplies and transport.

Philanthropists, "in collaboration with" the governments of the respective countries their charitable programmes are put in place, find it cost-effective to budget healthcare programmes without giving the community health workers their due. These overburdened and unsalaried health workers, having no proper formal training, enough personal protective equipment, and protection against gender-based violence, are left to explore ways to lobby politicians from their remote locations in the hope of beginning to receive a living wage.

When frustrated community health workers go on a strike to claim their deserved remuneration, poverty-stricken adults and children are badly affected. The world's largest community health workforce, the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), are still keeping up their fight for a fixed minimum wage and other basic benefits that any person performing tasks on behalf of the government should be entitled to.

We have social entrepreneurs commercialising Africa's issue of inadequate access to healthcare to solve it. It's disturbing to imagine a community health worker trying to interest the caregivers of a sick child into purchasing a solar lamp and other products in exchange for a diagnosis. These community health workers, at the mercy of the entrepreneurs who are slow to hire and quick to fire, will lose their only source of income – about 20 USD a month – if they fail to become successful salespeople. These workers, also labelled as "agents" by the social entrepreneurs, end up spending their hard-earned money on purchasing their respective employers' products to sell to the poor at a near-market price. Even the charitable organisations that take pride in giving the community health workers financial (based on "the geographic differences in labour costs") and non-financial incentives are simply the enablers of wage slavery.

However, a Coalition of these organisations began in 2019 after claiming to have demonstrated that salaried (the amount of the salary being as low as 10 or 20 USD per month) and digitally equipped community health workers can stop preventable deaths in the outlying parts of Africa where more than 80% of the community health workers still remain unpaid.

The essence of health aides has been known since the late 1800s when Russia's Feldshers treated people in the rural regions in the absence of physicians. But the the idea that the community health workers deserve a salary for their back-breaking work just started being popularized, through "in-depth research" and "advocacy", by the Coalition which is now composed of about five thousand community health workers, for-profit companies and corporations, and other non-governmental organisations.

But why do these social entrepreneurs, investing in micro-franchising Africa's health sector by training and monitoring the community health workers using advanced technology, avoid paying their employed workers a living wage? Well, they simply blame the World Bank for asking the respective governments of the countries they work in to avoid inflating the workers' wage bill...

For many rural healthcare workers who are merely treated as volunteers in the least developed nations, joining hands with the Coalition, that emphasizes on a goal of technologically upgrading the services of the community health workers, may be their only way towards getting any recognition, even if it's a monthly stipend of 30 USD, from their respective governments. At a time when many care workers of the USA, the country that dominates the international financial institutions like the World Bank, would rather wait tables at an eatery than work in the health sector, it's probably too early to imagine a bright future for the community health workers in economically poor countries. The question is, when will the few individuals in power face "constraints" that prevent the inequitable distribution of wealth in this world?

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

do you ever think about how we have phannies in every field? like we have doctors and baristas and mental health therapists and geologists and audiologists and engineers and neuroscientists and authors and social media consultants and activists and child care workers and museum managers and teachers and biologists and emts and linguists and accessibility coaches and sign language interpreters and artists and musicians and editors and actors and chefs and fucking EVERYTHING. not to mention the specific knowledge bases and hobbies we have outside of our professions—coding, linguistic and cultural diversity, artistic creativity, political/social awareness, passion for justice, research, make up and hair and fashion design, media literacy, philosophy, all of our special interests/hyperfixations, etc. we could run a successful commune no problem at all. we’re so smart and talented and resourceful and powerful.

the phandom is rooted in a past of being infamously shitty, and i do see yall slipping back into old habits sometimes (mostly on twitter but sometimes here and you know it <3) but it’s pretty fucking cool how capable this community is and our ability to unify. anyway phanmune when.

(if you want, leave your knowledge base/skills in the tags or replies. can be profession, hobby, major/program of study, what you study in your free time, what you want to learn about, what you’re interested, all of the above, anything)

[boymanmaletheshequel]

Subtle ways to honor Hygeia 🫧⚕️

- be kind to yourself

- brush your teeth

- use soap and shampoo

- take baths or showers

- treat wounds or infections

- be kind to care providers and nurses

- be kind to sanitation workers and custodians

- clean your bathroom when it begins to turn nasty.

- trim your nails

- sanitize and sterilize surfaces of items or objects that could accumulate bacteria and make you sick

- do your dishes

- use tissues and other proper sanitary devices like toilet paper and face masks if necessary.

- dispose of garbage responsibly and correctly.

- treat blemishes like acne and pimples holistically and safely.

- use hygiene products that are safe and effective for your skin and body

- wash your hands after using the bathroom (I know some of y’all don’t, too)

- please for the love of GOD flush toilets, especially public ones.

- use deodorant and perfumes

- get necessary vaccinations

- support local bills and political proposals that benefit public health and safety

- correct people on dangerous medical misinformation surrounding disease and sanitation.

[counterintuitivecomics]

Some colorized bits from my recent free printable zine WHY WE MASK: It's Not "Just A Cold"! I purposefully made the whole thing b&w to make printing as cheap as possible, but it's fun to add color especially to the snot-splosions.

HEY COMICS FRIENDS going to SPX or other cons this weekend - MASK UP, EAT OUTDOORS, and REST if you start feeling run down. COVID-19 levels are BAD bad right now (it's currently the worst September out of the whole pandemic) and the government does not have our backs. This virus causes YEARS worth of horrible vascular, neurological, and immune system damage, and each infection raises your chances of gaining fun new disabilities that could prevent you ever making comics again.

I strongly advice cancelling festivals, cons, indoor dining, anything involving crowds indoors OR outdoors, etc. But I know people depend on income from cons, so: PACK MASKS, NASAL SPRAY, and CPC MOUTHWASH and actually use them! If you develop any COVID-19 symptoms (headaches, dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea, sore throat, sore joints, etc) don't assume it's "just a cold". Stay in your dang hotel room and REST! You can TRY to "push through" to keep tabling but you are NOT gonna like the long-term results (aka Long COVID).

I care about all you comics people and I want you to enjoy many more decades of making and sharing and reading comics with each other. If you're feeling sick at a show this weekend and don't know what to do, drop me a line! No judgements. Take care of yourself and each other out there and remember, no one can rest your body for you but you.

(Image Descriptions are in the Alt Text. Also please feel free to print my zine and hand it out if you do go)co

[dailyanarchistposts]

Authors: David Graeber, Nika Dubrovsky Topics: COVID-19, health care

Or more precisely, we are imagining a sane world after the virus, one where, instead of just trying to put things back the way they were, we act on what we’ve learned. For instance, a huge proportion of office work, especially administrative, managerial, marketing, legal, finance, consultancy and the like have shown themselves to be pure bullshit. If they disappeared, it would either make no difference or the world might even be a slightly better place. The proof is that during the crisis, most of them did disappear and the world kept spinning. So imagine for a moment we are sane and don’t just go back to pretending there’s some reason to have all these people bluffing to make us think they work all day but instead got rid of the bullshit jobs. Well, one question would be: what would we do with all the buildings where they used to work? Obviously, those actually useful workers who kept us alive and cared for during the epidemic – doctors, nurses, cleaners, couriers, electricians, farmers – don’t need giant glass buildings to make them feel important. Some can be blown up. This will be good because it means there will be less energy use to keep them heated, cooled and so forth, which will reduce carbon emissions. But surely we wouldn’t want to blow up all of them.

After the French and Russian revolutions, the royal palaces were turned into state museums. That might point to one sane way to use them. But there’s also a crazy way: a return to “normalcy”. The model for this might be what happened after the large-scale deindustrialization of western metropolises, when former factories and warehouses were turned into private art centers, offices and condominiums for the kind of people who worked in them. Many find it hard to imagine this won’t happen again, if there is rapid de-bullshitization of work, but no real change to the financial system, or structures of wealth and power more generally. Empty offices would be bought up by investors, who would turn them into expensive condominiums or private art spaces whose presence will give the real estate additional market value. The only alternative usually put on the table is if the state takes over everything, either in the form of state socialism (which is basically just state-monopoly capitalism) or its right-wing “national-socialist” variant (in whatever updated 21st century form).

In that future, those empty offices not used to house bureaucrats or secret police will be turned into state museums: conservative, elitist institutions whose general ambiance balances somewhere between that of a cemetery and that of a bank. We would like to insist on the possibility – perhaps not the likelihood, but at least the possibility – of sanity. Imagine that the experience of lockdown and economic collapse actually allows us to see the world as it really is and we acknowledge that what’s referred to as “an economy” is simply the way we collectively keep each other alive, provision each other with the things we need and generally take care of one another. Say we also reject the notion of social control.

Prisons, after all, provide food, shelter and even basic medical care. Still, they are not “caring” institutions. What they provide is not care because real care is directed not just at supplying material needs, not even just to allow others to grow and thrive, but also, to maintain or enhance their freedom. Imagine we jettison the idea of production and consumption being the sole purpose of economic life and substitute care and freedom. What would we do with the buildings then?

In a world built around care and solidarity, much of this vast and absurd office space would indeed be blown up, but others could be turned into free city universities, social centers and hotels for those in need of shelter. We could call them ‘Museums of Care’ — precisely because they are spaces that do not celebrate production of any sort but rather provide the space and means for the creation of social relationships and the imagining of entirely new forms of social relations.

[blackwomanvibes]

Who Needs Cupid? 💘 Asexuality, Valentine's Day & Decolonizing Love (Land Back Edition) @BlackWomanVibes

#valentinesday #asexual #thehaunted 

Who said Asexuals, Aromantics and all the Queer can't enjoy Valentines Day? I had a mid dinner at Buttermilk & Bourbon in Back Bay and headed over to Copley Library to watch the captivating play led by two Indigenous actors. The Haunted had equal part funny, nostalgic and social critique. Definitely 10s across the board.

Like the content? Support the content creator cashapp: $BlackWomanVibes

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🧿

[lost-onpurpose]

Values

Do good recklessly

Help people when you can

Community is vital

No one is wrong for their religious beliefs, or lack of, unless they are using it to harm others)

Everyone deserves respect until they give you a reason not to give it

Pro LGBTQIA+

Pro Choice

Survival skills are important

Nature is good for your health

Content will include (but is not limited to)

Religion (all belief systems will be respected)

Environmental Discussion

Eco Friendly Discussion

Health

Mental Health

Travel

Music

Nature/Hiking

Mutual Aid/Community Assistance

Politics (I lean anarchist but will share political updates from many sides)

Recipes

Positivity

Do Not Interact If:

TERF/SWERF

Radfem/Tradfem

Homophobic

Transphobic

Fatphobic

Racist

Sexist

Ableist

Radical Christian

Anti sex work

Exclusively post feeder/feeder

ED/Thinspo blog

Partner: @primal-sanguine

[withbriefthanksgiving]

To the SSA, illness is only relevant in relation to whether and to what degree it impacts a person’s capacity to work. As Rosemarie Garland Thompson argues, this presumes that ill health, disability, and impairment are located only in the body and not also in the broader social, political, and geographical context that comprises the individual’s social determinants of health. Impairments and disabilities are reduced to numbers on a page: “On one scale, for example, limb amputation translates as a 70% reduction in ability to work, while amputation of the little finger at the distal joint reduces the capacity for labor by a single percentage point.”

[…] The ideological framing of wage work as a mitigating factor in an individual’s eligibility for health and welfare benefits attempts to map economic valuations of life onto regimes of biocertification, as is readily evident in SSDI determinations. Social Security disability eligibility is a legal process of decertifying a body for work, not the certification of a body for any type of qualifying disability or impairment demonstrating need for care and additional social supports.

Health Communism, Chapter 1: SURPLUS

[nothing-an-iratze-cant-fix]

Rishi Sunak really has gone full Scooby Doo villain mask off, huh? What a piece of shit.

[ivygorgon]

AN OPEN LETTER to THE PRESIDENT & U.S. CONGRESS; STATE GOVERNORS & LEGISLATURES

Act Now: Save Public Transit from Extinction!

2 so far! Help us get to 5 signers!

I am writing to highlight the critical state of public transit in the United States and urge your support increased investment in this essential service. The challenges facing public transit—under-investment, over-reliance on car ownership, and racial disparities—have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is imperative that we take bold action to address these issues for the benefit of our communities and our future.

Investing in public transit is not merely a matter of convenience; it is a necessity for tackling climate change, advancing equity, supporting essential workers, and fostering economic recovery. The largest source of carbon emissions in the U.S. stems from transportation, and increased investment in public transit can significantly reduce this impact. Furthermore, public transit plays a crucial role in providing equitable access to jobs, schools, and services, especially for those who cannot afford or do not have access to private vehicles.

With over 2.8 million essential workers relying on public transit, our pandemic response and economic recovery hinge on the strength and viability of our transit systems. According to studies, sustained investment in public transportation yields substantial economic returns, with every $1 billion invested annually resulting in approximately $5 billion in additional GDP.

I commend initiatives like the Green New Deal for Transportation and efforts by organizations such as the CHARGE coalition to electrify and expand public transportation. These initiatives are pivotal in shaping a more sustainable and equitable transportation system for all Americans.

Therefore, I urge you to support emergency relief funding for public transit and join the movement to rebuild and improve our public transit system. This is not just an investment in infrastructure; it is an investment in our collective future.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. I look forward to your support in advancing policies that will ensure a robust and accessible public transit system for all.

📱 Text SIGN PZHBAF to 50409

🤯 Liked it? Text FOLLOW IVYGORGON to 50409

💘 Q'u lach' shughu deshni da. 🏹 "What I say is true" in Dena'ina Qenaga

[karl-says]

Hello comrades! I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be on vacation for the next week, so I'll be a bit absent from posting. I apologize for my absences.

It's important to take breaks and recharge, yet many Americans don't take vacations due to time or budget constraints; which we also all know many countries offer mandatory days for such things. So let's remember the value of rest and advocate for policies that ensure everyone has the opportunity to take time off to relax and enjoy life. After all work shouldn't be your life.

See you all in a week! Stay strong and keep the conversation alive. In solidarity, Karl.

[free-grandmaa]

"Ripping my hair, bits and pieces of the old me's... Roots. The parts I let go... So much more of me exists."

[dailyanarchistposts]

Author: Abbey Volcano Topics: anti-work, health care, work

This is a story about anger, “non-profits,” and pissing blood. I was in my fifth year working at an independent health food store run by religious fanatics in a suburb outside of the city and I needed more money. I started off part-time at a cultural center, working the events. I would mainly be there at night, during performances and exhibits—taking people’s tickets, helping the artists set up, serving hors d’oeuvres, cleaning the toilets, etc. I was paid $12/hr to do this work and it was the most I had ever made in my life and it was the only job that wasn’t in the service industry, so I was pretty excited. Pretty soon after I started they asked me if I could take over the secretarial position. This was a full-time desk job. I really needed the money, especially because the health food store was closing down since a Whole Foods had moved into town. I took the job since I couldn’t have really done much better as far as pay went.

I know some people think that non-profits are non-capitalist or are somehow better for society and people who work there and so on. People who work in management positions at non-profits tend to be kind of smug because of this. The place I worked didn’t really operate much differently from any other job, so if there’s a non-profit difference, I didn’t see it. This job had been salaried before I took it but they switched it to hourly and they had me work 10-5p instead of 9-5p so they could opt me out of health insurance, sick days, vacation leave, or bennies of any variety. At first I was happy about being able to start working later in the day (I’m a nocturnal insomniac) and I had never had insurance through a job before, so didn’t think much of it. But I realized pretty quickly that this was bullshit. Everyone else in the office was on salary. Sometimes I felt bad for them because if they worked longer hours, they still received the same pay, but I was mainly upset that I was the only unsalaried person. Others clocked in: the janitor, the tech people, part-time people, but I was the only one in the office who had to clock in.

Pretty much everyone mostly just fucked around on the job. Now, I’ve done my share of fucking around on the job. I’m all for fucking around on the job. It beats actually working. But in this job, other people would get mad at me if I needed to do something that meant they had to do some work instead of fucking around on the job. My job made me the first person anyone calling or coming into the cultural center made contact with. If I wasn’t there, someone else had to take calls or questions, or give tours, or the worst: make their own copies and fax their own memos. The other people in the office would be pretty pissed if I wasn’t there on time, or if I was in the bathroom, or late, whatever. They weren’t mean to me, but it disrupted their regular schedule of fucking around in the back and I could tell it annoyed them.

So there was me in the front office and four people in the back: grant writer, administrative person, accounts manager, and the executive director. Everyone else had a lot of flexibility, like you would expect at a salaried job at a cultural center to have. When they had dentist appointments, doctor appointments, their children were sick, they were sick, or anything that required them to be out of the office, they were allowed to go without penalty. Now I didn’t have health insurance like the rest of them, so I didn’t need to worry about getting time off to go to the doctor or dentist. Lucky me! I was pretty bitter about these dynamics, especially since we were all supposed to get along and be friends and what not. I found myself pretty focused on the fact that they had access to all these things and I didn’t. I’d see them laughing and joking around and I’d just think to myself how much easier it is to put a smile on at work when you at least get bennies. (Of course, work sucks, full stop. Fuck work.) So I hated my job, I hated almost all my co-workers because they were smug and on power trips. The executive director—that’s another story all its own; she is a character. A character you love to hate. She’s a rich liberal who thinks she’s a radical. Gross.

Here’s a brief story to demonstrate her fake radicalness, her loyal opposition. The executive director seemed to fetishize me as a radical. She knew my politics since I had been cooking with Food Not Bombs for a couple years and we used the center’s kitchen. So we had chatted a bunch and she considered herself a fellow radical. I’m not sure why she thought this of herself, but she did. When I first started the secretarial position, it was not explained to me that I was to be both a secretary and a personal assistant to this woman. One of the first things she had me do was look over a schematic she came up with that demonstrated how the office was organized in a non-hierarchical manner. She asked me to look it over and offer her suggestions—I think she wanted to pass these out to the office workers to boost morale, but I’m not really sure. The only suggestion I could offer is that it was completely untrue. She was interested in why I thought this, so I took the time to explain to her that the office is not organized in a non-hierarchical manner, as she had clear authority over tasks and the division of labor, she clearly made about $50k more than the other salaried employees, and as looking at it from my own standpoint, I didn’t even have insurance, sick-leave, vacation days, nor salary. It wasn’t just pay that divided us, but the division of labor was clearly and rigidly set by the board and the executive director who also established the various rules and regulations (formal and informal) which we were all to follow. It was really gross to have my boss try to convince me that we were working in a cooperative, non-hierarchical office situation. I continued to oppose everything she offered to support her argument, but she eventually dropped it and just laughed it off. I never saw that schematic again.

So one day I felt like I had a urinary tract infection (UTI) coming on. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular malady— congratulations because they are the worst. It causes you to have to pee constantly, but when you try to urinate it doesn’t really work, and it feels like razor blades are coming out of your urethra instead of urine. It’s awful. Vaginas are more susceptible to them and if you’ve had one, you’ll likely have another since it causes scar tissue, which causes more UTIs, which causes more scar tissue, etc. There are some over-the-counter drugs to ease the pain, but you need to take an antibiotic to clear up the infection so you can pee normally again. When you have a UTI, you can’t really leave your house. It’s awful. A 5-minute ride to work can be too much to handle. When I say you have to pee constantly, I mean it. Sometimes you just sit on the toilet waiting to pee. Sometimes you wear a pad so you can let out little bits of pee. Perhaps I’m getting a little TMI. But the point is, holding in your pee, even if it’s a miniscule amount, is pain that no one can bear.

So I had a UTI coming on and I knew it. I did whatever I could to try and address it with natural things so I didn’t have to go to the walk-in clinic. I drank incredibly expensive gallons of 100% unsweetened cranberry juice, I drank more water than I thought possible, and I also took incredibly expensive cranberry extract pills. That will usually steer me clear and take care of things, but not this particular time. I had symptoms for over a week. I was incredibly uncomfortable and in a lot of pain, but I knew that I didn’t have money to pay for the walk-in, to pay for the meds, and especially to take time off from work and lose those hours.

One morning, about eight days into this ordeal, I woke up to go to work and realized I was now pissing blood. UTIs that get bad enough to piss blood are rare. They’re rare because most people wouldn’t put up with the amount of pain and length of time it takes to have an untreated UTI develop into one which causes pissing blood. Pissing blood is kind of the last straw. So I was pissing blood and knew I had to get to the walk-in as soon as possible. I reluctantly called into work, explained the situation, and told them I’d get there as soon as possible, but that I needed to go to the walk-in first. This was a pretty difficult task since I also didn’t have a car at the time since mine had been stolen from that same job (wee! And also my wallet was stolen off my desk at one point). So I borrowed a car, went to the walk-in, they confirmed I had a UTI and scolded me on waiting so long to treat it, gave me a prescription, and sent me on my way. I went to the pharmacy, got my pills, and drove to work so I could at least make some money that day.

UTIs are treatable and one of the most common infections—all you really need is to take an anti-biotic for a few days and it’s over. My co-workers were shocked that I was pissing blood, they were very concerned and asked why I waited so long to take care of things. The women, especially, winced when I told them the pain I was in. They even told me to go home for the day. At this point, I had pretty much lost any ability to remain calm. I explained to them that I couldn’t afford to take time off of work, I couldn’t afford the walk-in clinic, and I couldn’t afford the prescription, and that was “why” I waited so long. I stayed the rest of the day, of course. I didn’t speak to anyone and my eyes were daggers.

The fact that I had to be pissing blood in order to justify taking off a few hours from work is bullshit. When smug well-off women at “non-profits” are shocked and ask you why you waited so long to go to the doctor when you have a UTI, you pretty much want to kill them, and anyone else, hell, everyone else. They couldn’t understand what it meant not having insurance, not having sick-leave, and not having the ability to even get to a doctor without borrowing a car. They were so used to their salary, their benefits, their vacation time, that they seemed unable to understand the problems I was having and why I didn’t do things the way they would have. I didn’t mince my words, so they started to get it a little. Then they just walked around in a kind of guilty manner the rest of the day. These are the same people who could’ve made my job full-time, offered me benefits, etc. They made the choice to change the job when I took it. I think they knew I’d take it since I was desperate and they weren’t worried about filling the position, so why not screw me over? Worst is, 35 hours in my state is considered full-time and I believe I was entitled to sick leave. Trimming my position to 35 hours/week made them feel better about taking away any benefits, but it wasn’t legal. They felt guilty when they found out how their decision to change my job had affected me, but not so guilty as to pay me more or provide me with health insurance. Fuck liberals, their useless guilt, and their loyal opposition. Furthermore, like I said, fuck work.

[alicenowonderland]

STORY TIME !! 🖊

Unlike any other people, I have an idea what a Social Worker is. Pero ang alam ko lang ay taga-bigay sila ng relief goods kapag may kalamidad, taga-tulong sa mga nangangailangan lalo na sa mga kinapos sa pambayad sa ospital at mag-bigay ng edukasyon sa mga Mangyan.

Both my parents are community organizers and community developers. Kaya siguro hindi gaanong bago sa akin ang magtrabaho kasama ang mga nasa laylayan ng lipunan at mga considered “vulnerable” sectors.

I finished my degree after 5 and a half years. Hehe 😅 Oo, hindi ako on time grumaduate. Sobrang pressure pa noong Board Exam dahil mag-isa akong nag-take sa school namin, so it 0% or 100%. Pero syempre hindi ako na-pressure, nag-inom ako 😂😅

Matapos ang exam, pag-uwi sa Calapan, nag-volunteer ako bilang community profiler sa Conservation Innovation Philippines. Noong pumasa ako ng board exam, kinabukasan nag-apply kaagad ako sa mga field na interesado ako. Pero naka-set talaga noon ang mind ko na sa Province ako mag-wowork.

Kasama ng ilang mga Social Workers kong naging kaibigan sa Luna Goco (hindi ako don graduate pero naging friends ko sila) nag-apply kami ng trabaho sa probinsya. Hanggang sa nakapasok ako bilang Medical Social Worker sa MMG Hospital sa amin. After 3 months, tumawag ang Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office.

Naaalala ko pa noong nag-aapply ako sa PSWDO, pinasulat ako ni Mam Zarah kung alin sa tatlong method ng Social Work ang strength at weakness ko. Syempre, strength ko ang community organizing at weakness ko ang Case Work. Bakit? Siguro dahil mas nababad ako sa komunidad. Mula sa mga magulang ko, hanggang sa mga gawain sa simbahan, pulos pag-oorganisa. Isa siguro sa dahilan kaya ako mahina sa Case Work ay dahil tamad akong mag-sulat (nang hindi literary fiction) at medyo hindi fruitful ang experience ko during my Field Instruction 1 and 2. Nahirapan ako sa Case Work.

Surprisingly, inilagay ako ni Mam Zarah sa Bahay Kanlungan. Isang temporary shelter para sa mga abused and neglected women and children. In other words, maraming Case Work. Maraming Case Management. Tamad na tamad ako nung una pero pipilit kong mag-trabaho. Ina-apply ko iyong mga mga bagay na napag-aralan ko. May times pa na kapag uuwi ako matapos kong gumawa ng Case Study Report ay masusuka ako o lalagnatin dahil sa stess sa mga cases na nababasa at napapakinggan ko. Sa kakapilit ko sa sarili ko, sa kakapush nila Ate Net at Ate Mira sa akin, sa tiwala nilang tatlo ni Mam Zarah at nang mga kasama namin sa BK, masasabi kong nag-improve ako sa pag-gawa ng CSR at Case Management.

Habang nasa BK, naranasan ko rin na maging taga-balot ng relief goods at mag-monitor ng bagyo. HINDI KA SOCIAL WORKER PAG HINDI KA NAKARAMAS NG RELIEF OP! HAHAHAHA!!! Naranasan kong pumasok ng 2pm to 10pm para dumuty sa pier para mag-bigay ayuda sa mga Locally Stranded Individuals noong kasagsagan ng Pandemic.

Nag-part time ako bilang Research Assistant sa project ng USAID at Ateneo de Manila tungkol sa epekto ng illegal drugs sa relasyon ng mga substance abuse users at sa kanilang mga pamilya.

Sa BK ko naranasan maging Nanay, Ate, Tita at maging warrior rawr 😂 Nang-aaway nang mga guardian na nagpapa-urong ng kaso ng mga bata. Sa BK ko nadevelop ang marami kong skills tulad ng courage, patience... OO PATIENCE na laging paalala ni Ate Nen dahil mainitin ang ulo ko at ang Integrity. Always na paalala ni Mam Zarah at kahit saako makarating naririnig ko ang bilin niyang INTEGRITY. 😇 Blessed to have a boss like her. Blessed to have colleagues like them.

May part time din ako noon na counseling. May bata akong na basic counseling cause she seems like lost. She has plans for herself, hindi niya lang ma express and I am happy to see that she is okay now. She is vocal and an achiever sa school 😭🥰

After almost 4 years sa Bahay Kanlungan, I tried new venture. I worked at TeleCPU. A project by Child Protection Network (#AkoParaSaBata) and Unicef. 🩵 A Multi-disciplinary team na ang focus din is crisis intervention to abused children. Child Protection Unit (CPU) is a "one stop shop" for the children victims of abuse. Dream job ko ang Philippine General Hospital (PGH) but knowing na mataas ang standards nila, I did not go for it at balak ko nga sa Province lang mag work, but then, God really has plans. God really knows our greatest desires. Pinagtrabaho niya ako sa PGH-CPU. 💙 A dream job. A dream team (SHOUTOUT MGA WENGWENG!) Dito ko na experience kumausap sa mga Barangay Officials at Barangay Workers. Na-experience makipag deal sa mga tao, sumagot ng helpline calls at maging MASTER TYPER sa APSB 😂 🧡 Naranasan ko rin tumulong mag-organize ng big events, gumising nang maaga at matulog ng late 😂 kahit na tinulugan ko si Doc at si Papi nung sinabi kong tutulong ako 😂 BEST BOSS SI DOC MARIANNE. 🤍 Natutunan ko maging organized (medyo) at mas maging professional sa working place. FOCUS kung FOCUS. Higit sa lahat natutunan kong respetuhin na may iba't iba tayong working styles at working phase. 🥰

Pero sabi ko nga, may plano si Lord. AT syempre, darating ang time na kinakailangan kong umuwi ulit sa province dahil ni Tala. Kung pwede ko nga lang siyang dalhin sa Manila eh. Honestly, ito na yata ang pinaka-challenging na trabaho para sa akin. After almost 5 years of working with child abuse cases, sea abuse naman 😅

I am currently employed at Malampaya Foundation. Isang napaka-generous na NGO. Wala akong masabi, bigay talaga sila ng incentives sa employees. Hindi ka tatamarin ng work, sa halip ma momotivate kang pataasin ang incentives at bonus mo. 🤣 #MukhangPeraWithAHeart Isa naman akong community organizer dito. Ang funny noh? Ang sabi ko ang strength ko ay COMMUNITY ORGANIZING pero heto ako ngayon sobrang nag-aadjust at hirap na hirap 😅 Kaya ko naman. I know I can pero dumarating talaga tayo sa career life natin na nalilito tayo at nahihirapan sa ginagawa natin. I am convincing myself to strive, to be better. Alam kong kaya ko and I am doing my best to help the communities na maiangat iyong livelihood nila at matulungan sila sa Marine Conservation kahit na basic lang ang alam ko.

Siguro isa sa kalakasan ko iyong adventurous akong tao. Tuwang tuwa ako noong nag-training ng Mangrove Assessment, wala man akong naintindihan sa terms pero noong practical na super go na go ako. Nag-enjoy akong mag-lakad sa putik at mag-sukat ng mangroves. Na-eenjoy ko na tuwing pupunta ako ng communities ay may mga kwento sila at naka-ngiti ko silang iiwan matapos ko silang matulungan kung paano nila matutulungan ang mga sarili nila. ❤️💙💛 Sa trabaho ko ngayon nahahasa ang resource mobilization skills ko at ang mediation skills.

I have a looooong way to go.

Marami pa akong gustong field na maranasan.

Ang pangarap ko talaga ay maging doctor. Pero one way or another, na realize ko na nanggagamot din ako, hindi man ng lagnat o anumang pisikal na sakit, pero nakakagamot ako sa kalidad at estado ng buhay ng mga tao. Nakakagaling ako ng mga emosyonal na sakit.

Masaya akong naging Social Worker ako.

Kahit minsan, litong lito na ako sa buhay ko.

HAPPY WORLD SOCIAL WORK'S DAY 💜 Maligayang Araw sa atin mga Manggagawang Panlipunan 💜 Nag-iba ka man ng landas, successful o nagiging successful ka pa lang

ARAW NATIN 'TOH! 💜🌻

#HappySocialWorkMonth

#HappySocialWorkersDay

[blackwomanvibes]

Blue Ivy Isn’t The Problem, It’s Y’ALL Who Adultify & Sexualize BLACK GIRLS!

https://youtu.be/-NCXCZmNyGA

#BlueIvy #lionkingmovie #lionking We are discussing Beyoncé & JayZ’s daughter Blue Ivy’s Lion King premiere red carpet role out! Blue’s golden metallic dress turned heads for mutiple reasons, including folks dragging Blue for looking older than her age. Let’s discuss the bias that Black girls experience in this sexist rascist antiBlack society. 

 As an Ace (Asexual) life outside of cishet patriarchal normativity often is lonely. Even as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, we are often relegated as a mystery due to the lack of media/social representation of Asexuals and being replaced as a + sign after the Q in LGBTQ(+). Amatonormativity may rule the day, but we still exist as the alternative and that’s beautiful. 

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