By Marivir R. Montebon
New York – Productivity and living a sense of meaningfulness in the time of lockdown is necessary to maintain one’s sanity, said a school-based counselor of the Bohol Island State University (BISU) during the maiden episode of the digital conversation platform Women’s World.
Maria Dina Golosino, the first resource person to guest in the zoom-driven talk show, spoke extensively on measures undertaken by women to survive in the current covid19 health crisis. She also discussed the prevalent cases of youth suicides in the province of Bohol, which is largely created by the lack of supportive relationships and compounded by the feeling of hopelessness in a poverty situation.
Women’s World is co-hosted by Dr. Arceli Hernando, director for student affairs of BISU, Merly Barlaan, International Vice President for Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) – Asia, and Marivir Montebon, a New York-based journalist and publisher of the OSM! Online Magazine.
The launch episode took place on May 24, 2020 in New York and New Jersey, and on May 25, 2020 in Tagbilaran in the Philippines, inside the locked down living room, bedroom, and office of the three hosts. The WFWP and OSM! Online Magazine sponsor this newly launched digital show to introduce innovations of the new norm induced by the pandemic.
Barlaan expressed her challenges as a mom during the time of lockdown in providing support to her two teenage boys. “Doing homework with the boys is actually a challenge for me, plus of course, managing time for housework, cooking. Despite my own challenges, I am also thinking of the other women. How are they? Especially those who have problems on income, what food to put on the table during this pandemic,” she quipped.
Hernando for her part said it was not easy to adjust to the lockdown, as she was always the woman-on-the-go. The lockdown brought out the green thumb in her, as she now began to tend to her garden which has been uncared for when her househelp left.
Montebon meanwhile said that the lockdown has heightened her concern for hygiene. “I wash my hands every so often, I wash grocery items before putting them in the fridge, I soak my shoes and jackets with disinfectants, and when I return from a very quick grocery shopping, I shower. I’ve been trying to follow what the CDC has told us to do,” she said, laughing.
According to Golosino, what the hosts were sharing was how women could actually ways to cope well with a crisis. “One has to find meaning or sense in what she’s doing. That is the way to survive.”
Golosino, a mother, step-mother, grandmother, cited her own challenges as she goes about her work as guidance counselor. “It is a very challenging task, and I cope by regularly meditating,” she said.
As a counselor, she has seen the need for a healthy support system and a good family relationship to keep youth suicides at bay. “The sense of hopelessness among the poor youth is high. This drives them to commit suicide. But this is especially so, when they lack parental support. Or there was a relationship trauma in the past which has not been healed.”
The guests, who came from various parts of the world – Austria, Australia, and Africa – lauded the substantive discussion on the maiden issue. One written reaction has it, that while poverty may be especially true in the Philippines, youth suicides in Europe is prevalent among those who have had less loving relationships with parents.
The second episode is on Tuesday, May 26 9PM EST and Wednesday May 27 9AM Phil. Time with special guests Ms. Judy Aguilar Cinco, KUMON owner and operator in Catbalogan, Samar and Marie Claire Hernando, KUMON student in Tagbilaran City.
