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Monday, March 29, 2004
Baguio researcher receives award
UNPRETENTIOUS. This adjective came to mind as I shook hands with Ma'am Katherine Bersamira inside Dr. Charles Cheng's clinic along Lapu-Lapu Street beside Centermall Thursday afternoon.
(I went there to interview a lady, whom Dr. Cheng referred to as someone Baguio and the Cordillera should really be proud of. He won't say who when he visited Sun.Star Wednesday night to personally invite us to a testimonial dinner on Sunday at Hotel Supreme. Just that this lady's one of the 129 pioneering women in the Philippines who made invaluable contributions in the field of health and sciences for the last 100 years! My curiosity got the better of me.)
Ma'am Katherine, of La Paz, Abra, is a researcher at heart but had to take up an Education degree at the Saint Louis University because that was what her parents - an Antamok Mines police and a seamstress - could afford at that time. She did not fail her family as she graduated cum laude and went on to become the school's critic teacher in mathematics and science.
A year later, she was awarded a scholarship grant from the National Science Development Board (now Department of Science and Technology) and the Ford Foundation to take up master's degree in mathematics at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. After finishing her degree, she returned to SLU and became instrumental in introducing innovations in teaching mathematics to teachers all over northern Luzon and a summer science institute instructor of scholar teachers and administrators of the SLU Regional Science Teaching Center.
In 1975 (up until today), she became the research associate of the Baguio Filipino-Chinese General Hospital, a profession which paved the way to seeing her lifelong dream fulfilled as she worked on several health-related research projects.
The researches include an investigation on drug abuse among Baguio and Benguet youth, which was awarded first prize by the Phil. Medical Association and earned her an Outstanding Research Associate award from the Medical Society; another study on smoking among students of Baguio and Benguet, which also gave her another award.
Her work on the physical fitness profile and academic performance of school children of Baguio bagged the PMA-Abbot Research Award for Rural Medicine and Public Health in 1987 and an outstanding citation from the Sports Medicine of the Philippines for Boxing Injuries. She was also commended by the Baguio Amateur Sports Improvement Council.
Ma'am Katherine also co-authored a book on the effects of pesticides on Benguet farmers which won the coveted 1989 Dr. Raul Rivas Memorial Research Award for Public Health. The book is now widely used as a reference by the DA, students of agriculture and farmers' field schools in the various towns of Benguet and Mt. Province.
Other researches that were cited first prize by the Dr. Raul Rival award for Rural Medicine and Public Health categories were "The Silent Killer among Women Farmers in Benguet" and "Iodine Deficiency Disorders in Kapangan and the Effect of Iodine and Vitamin Supplementation."
It was the pioneering analysis and her years of dedication that earned her due recognition by being ranked among the "Century of Women in Health Sciences, 1900-2000."
"I felt so happy that I was one of these 129 women achievers. The award was really unexpected," she told me.
Ma'am Katherine said she did not even know that she was an awardee up until she was in the lobby of Richmond Hotel last March 16, curious upon seeing several other women - some on wheelchairs and quite old - gathered there also.
She recalled that in 1998, she received a sort of survey form from Dr. Celso Dayrit of the National Academy of Science Technology. This was followed by a letter from Dr. Perla Santos Ocampo, UP Manila chancellor, and also of the science institute.
"She (Ocampo) asked me for a biodata and a 2x2 picture," Ma'am Katherine recalled, saying she forgot all about the letter and survey form after complying with the request.
Last March 8, which marked this year's International Women's Day, she again received a letter from Ocampo, this time requesting her to be at Richmond Hotel at 10:30 a.m.
Unknown to her, the affair was for the recognition of women in sciences rites - and that she was one of the awardees.
"When I gave my name to one of the receptionists, I remember her saying `So, you're the lady from the North'."
She was indeed the only awardee from here. All other women achievers were mostly from Manila and neighboring areas, another distinction that her kaelyans should really be proud of.
She shares the award with Dr. Cheng and her other friends and sponsors. "Without them, I would not have achieved this." CGC
(March 29, 2004 issue)
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