WORLD OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY DAY

Annually, the world is celebrating World Occupational Therapy Day on the 27th day of October with this year’s theme “Belong. Be You”, which gives honor to all of our OT practitioners and students that engage in this field of expertise to give heart-felt service to other people. It is to nurture and promote the goals, mission, and purpose of occupational therapy. In line with this, the Liceo de Cagayan University, College of Rehabilitation Sciences Occupational Therapy Department has decided to give donations and contributions to the elders and for children in Cagayan de Oro City. The Occupational Therapy department of Liceo de Cagayan University came up with an idea to raise funding for the donations. Everyone contributed by giving goods, donating money, and sharing posts that helped to raise funding for the event of the month.

Together with the whole LDCU’s Occupational Therapy department, we celebrated World OT day with a joyous and energetic atmosphere. It started with a prayer by Ms. Joiz Comely Nillas and was to be followed by a short video intended for the OT day. Mr. Prime John Rafisura shared the history of Occupational Therapy, it is to remember how passionate and showed empathy in this profession the founders of Occupational Therapy. Mr. Rafisura also have trivia and gave us pictures and let us guess who that particular person was. Next, there were representatives to read their OT Calendars that were given before the actual OT day. It is also a good way to know other OT students at Liceo de Cagayan University, on how their day went, their favorites, hobbies, talents, and many more that allow us to get to know each other more. It is important to reflect or to know how we spent our day, know our emotions, know how to be productive to have a healthy routine every single day. The next activity was hangman, it is a game where a player thinks of a word or phrase and then players will try to guess the word or phrase by suggesting a letter within a certain guess. It was played by each group that was assigned the day before OT day and the most gained score wins. The next game was charades, it is a party guessing game. The player will act out each syllable of a word or phrase and the rest of the group members will try to guess the word or phrases given. It is a fun and interactive game, everyone enjoyed the charades and tried to guess the word or phrase. Next is a guessing game entitled “Guess the occupation”, it’s a game where they give a certain activity and everyone must try to guess if where it belongs. The next one, they presented a clip of the OT Donation drive, from buying pieces of stuff, goods, and other necessities for the donation. It was fun seeing those people who voluntarily helped and spent their time to buy and give to the less fortunate people. They haven’t interacted much with the elderly and children due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to help prevent the spread of the virus but not the heart who wants to spread the love for everyone. The next one is the raffle draw, who will be lucky winners will receive certain prizes. So, for the Third prize, a burger and a milk tea were won by Ms. Alyssa. Next is Ms. Shakina, the next prize won by Ms. Angela Liz Pelegrino, another burger and milk tea for her and lastly Ms. Kirsten Say for the first prize. After the games and prizes, we proceeded to award the winners in every game. The winner for the hangman was group 1. Charades was won by group 1 also with a score of 20 points in 47 seconds they were able to guess 3 words. For the guess the occupation game, so for the winner was the group 1 that accumulated 30 points who were able to guess 3 correct answers. For the overall winner was group 1, followed by group 3 and then group 2. Everyone thanks each other for participating and everyone enjoyed World OT Day.

It is such a heartwarming act of the OT students of Liceo de Cagayan University. Seeing those sweet smiles from the people they helped with. Helping is another way of showing love and gratitude for all the blessings we received every single day of our life. Giving something without asking for any return is such a kind way of being selfless to other people. LDCU OT Department is sending love and regards to all people who helped by donating money, food, goods, and other necessities. OT department is thankful for everyone who participated and gave time to make this celebration of World OT Day a successful one.

Writer: Juan Miguel Palarca, CRS Newsletter Writer