A proud and fulfilled mother to both her children and students, academician, Dr. Rufina Calub-Abul, is this year’s lone Outstanding Women Leader (OWL) awardee.
Abul was honored during testimonial dinner with the officers and members of OWL on March 9.
Abul’s commitment to community service dates back to the 1990s. Her initial involvement as a nursing graduate was in community health relief work for the severely affected communities in Baguio and Benguet after the 1990 killer earthquake that greatly damaged the city.
In 1991, she was again part of the team that conducted psychosocial debriefing at evacuation centers in San Marcelino, Zambales, during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.
Since then, Abul has ceaselessly served the people of Baguio and the Cordillera through numerous selfless acts aimed at improving the lives of children, youth, women, and the general populace.
She has also provided psychological first aid during calamities and disasters such as Typhoon Pepeng in 2009, super typhoon Yolanda in 2014 , the Typhoon Ompong landslide in 2018, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the growing mental health problems, Abul has decided to specialize in mental health and psychiatric nursing.
This expertise has enabled her to serve as a nurse therapist to clients suffering from various psychosocial problems, conduct psychotherapy, especially for adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse.
She was also engaged in various mental health advocacy efforts by conducting seminars in schools and communities in Baguio and the rest of the region while she also serves as a crisis intervener and psychosocial processing.
To extend the scope of service to the community, she collaborated with other mental health advocates and became instrumental in the foundation of the Anxiety and Depression Support Group of Baguio.
Living up to Saint Louis University’s mission of being “A Light of the North,” she chose not to join the bandwagon of nurses with lucrative careers overseas.
Instead, she dedicates herself to molding caring and excellent nurses. She exemplifies “mission et excellence” (mission and excellence) in all responsibilities and undertakings vested upon her, which has earned her the “Exemplary Performance Award” as a faculty of the School of Nursing annually from 2008 to the present. She is well-loved by her students.
The 2018 batch of nursing graduates has awarded her the “Anastacia Giron Tupaz Award” – a testament to her leadership in nursing. – Malaya Hagiyoh
