Gawad Serbisyong Pangrehiyon 2015

This year's Gawad Serbisyong Pangrehiyon was held last October 13, 2015 at the Basic Sciences Lecture Room-East (BSLR-E) at the UP College of Medicine (UPCM). The Gawad Serbisyong Pangrehiyon also known as "The UPCM Class 1963 Award for Best Summer Immersion" is an annual event organized by the Regionalization Program Committee (RPC) of the UPCM to recognize  the contributions of medical students from this college's Regionalization Program (RP) during their summer immersions. The event highlights the presentations of immersion reports by selected nominees from a roster of RP students every year. 

This year's nominees for the Individual and Group category are as follows:

INDIVIDUAL CATEGORY (Top 4, not in order)

"Towards Electronic Primary Healthcare Services in rural Health Unit (RHU)- Jolo, Sulu through RxBox Program: An assessment of factors that affect its implementation and the health worker's knowledge, attitudes and perceptions"

By Musahari, Ahmad

"Balindog, Lanao del Sur: A Health Profile"

By Masorong, Aimah

"Combating Child Malnutrition: Year 2 (A 3-year Nutritional Assessment Status Monitoring and Nutritional Interventions among Malnourished Preschool Children Age 0-7 months in Claveria Cagayan" 

By Ibale, Mark Gibson D.

"Influence of Tandok and Tawak Cultures on the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Marinduquenos in handling animal bites"

By Sosa, Benjamin III O.

GROUP CATEGORY (Top 4, not in order)

"Finding the Gap: Similarities and Differences between patients' and health care providers' perceived service availability and readiness of the Rural Health Unit of Lamut, Ifugao - A comparative a analysis"

By Ayahao, Dela Cruz, Pasigon, Almora, Bacuso, Feliciano, Lampac, Dulawan & Dulnuan

"Priority Health Problems in Barangay San Julian Norte"

By Quiambao & Subido

"Pinggang Pinoy: An Approach to Reduce Risk of Noncommunicable Disease Among Residents of Salay, Misamis Oriental"

By Silava, Sucor, Chiu & Pacana

"Impact of Pantawid Pilipino Program on Maternal and Child Helath of Enrolled Households from selected Barangays in SOCCKSARGEN"

By Obenieta, Salem & Pascual 

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And now for the "informal" portion: Yeay!

Presenting my (messy) results earlier. Photo: Zeid Tungupon

First, Alhamdulillah, being nominated for the second time for this award is a great blessing and a wonderful opportunity as well. Just having the chance to present your paper to the health and research community in this prestigious school is no small thing at all! And believe me, I was so nervous earlier because I wasn't able to prepare and polish my presentation that well. 

And then the presentations came in. and I was like:

Earlier today... I was like

"Oh no! I did not practice my presentation!"
"My paper is too messy."
"I cannot possibly say everything."
"What if I messed up?"
"They have a far better presentations that I do."
"Oh well, at least I tried."
"I will just do my better best next time."

As nervous as I am, I still asked the organizers to allow me to be the first presenter because I have a scheduled graded SGD in the OBGYN Department. Yet as my name was called and as I faced the crowd, I was still feeling unsure, pessimistic. Can I really do this? Is my paper really that worth it? I even felt how much I messed up my presentation earlier! As one of the judges pointed out after my presentation: 

"You have a lot in your mind, you wanted to do so many things at the same time. You could have at least break them down into manageable parts and focus on one thing at a time..."

And I could not agree more. I thanked him for that remark and made a mental note to surely revise my paper.

"Aside from that, you did a great job." he added. 

As much as I wanted to listen to all the presentations and see the results until the end of the event, I just can't. It's already 9:15AM and I have to go (my SGD starts in 9:30AM) and so I went to attend my SGD trying to forget about the award. That hey! It's already good enough to be nominated, at least you tried. I honestly did not expect to win anymore. 

And then in between our discussions, I received a text from one of my "younger brothers" attending the event:

"Kah, I have your prize. hahaha Congratulations! Alhamdulillah! You got First Prize!"

 And I was so surprised! ma sha Allah! I could never ever count how much blessing Allah has given me. I feel like I do not deserve it, that I wasn't able to do the "best" in me and yet, He still gave me this. Alhamdulillah! Alhamdulillah!

Alhamdulillah for this blessing! Winning this year's Gawad Serbisyong Pangrehiyon, Award for Best Summer Immersion 2015 (Individual Category) is such a wonderful blessing from Allah. I can not even say if I really deserve this :'( huhu

Still. Thank you so much! Thank you po sa lahat ng mga taong tumulong sa akin. My  utmost gratitude to all those who that made this a success.  

My second plaque. My second GSP Award :)

A closer look...

I know I wasn't able to do my best during the presentation. Perhaps my only edge here is my willingness and dedication to this job of serving my community. All I did was do everything--from the very start--with my heart. Yes. perhaps that was the secret: loving what you do, regardless of what awards or prizes there are; regardless if something is to be given in exchange for your efforts or not. Regardless if you will be recognized or not. The awards and prizes are nothing but bonuses. Nothing more. 

In due fairness though, all the papers nominated for the Gawad are all deserving papers. I kinda wish there was a recorded video of their presentations so that I could re-watch them later on. I know they did their best as much as I do, perhaps they even did it better. And so I say, all of us are winners ^_^

With Ms. Pasigon, representative from CAR who won the 1st Prize for the Group Category of GSP 2015.

Lastly, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to the following people for the success of this study:

1. Dr. Portia Grace Fernandez-Marcelo, NTHC Director

2. Dr. Abdel Jeffri Abdulla, the author’s RP Adviser

3. Dr. Fahra Tan-Omar, Sulu Provincial Health Officer and the author’s field preceptor during the study.

4. Dr. Farahnaz Intimani, Municipal health Officer, RHU-Jolo

5. The Research and Technical staff of the NTHC

6. Ms. Jane Bahjin, Head Nurse, RHU-Jolo

7. The Health workers and volunteers in RHU-Jolo

And lastly, the RSO Family! I will always be a proud RP Student! 

For the Nation! Through the Regions!

Salam Kasilasa!

Ahmad ibn Hajiri