Towards a culture of hope

One only needs to google the key words “Cebu hanging dead” to find evidence that amid all our optimism about life, many of our compatriots, even in this province known for its festal atmosphere, experience for one reason or another, a sense of despair that leads them to take their own lives.

The first page of search results (as of yesterday), contain links to stories of the finding this year of the bodies of suicides—in a hospital in Cebu City (reported Aug. 9), in a house in barangay Cogon-Pardo (reported May 4), in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (reported July 6), in the Cebu City jail and in a house in barangay Luz (reported June 12), in an outdoor toilet in barangay Inayawan (reported Sept. 9).

These reports dovetail with another released by the Natasha Golbourn foundation in time for last Sept. 10’s World Suicide Prevention Day that at least one Filipino commits suicide every day due to depression.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer noted that “the Philippines has the highest incidence of depression in Southeast Asia” and cited data from the World Health Organization that showed there are 93 suicides for every 100,000 Filipinos.

“The 2004 Philippine Health Statistics showed that children as young as 10 years old were killing themselves. For that year, the Department of Health registered 42 suicides among 10- to 14-year-olds, 261 suicides among the 15- to 19-year-olds, and 335 among those in the 20-24 age bracket. The Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health in the Philippines recently reported that five died of suicide every day, or about 150 every month.”

As September is Suicide Prevention Month now would be a good time for concerned public and private institutions to initiate relevant projects.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman admitted that her department has not made a study on suicide in the Philippines. It’s high time that they do one.

At least two suicides occurred in correctional facilities in Cebu this year. If only to remind inmates of their human dignity and to hope even as they live behind bars, prison counselors and chaplains should be given more support staff and material to do their jobs.

Many of the recent Cebuano suicides were males who had problems with their girlfriends. The barangay youth councils in cooperation with youth or family committees in Cebu province, cities and towns can counter this Romeo-and-Juliet syndrome with campaigns for emotional well-being and the presentation of modules on building healthy relationships especially for out-of-school youth.

At least two young suicides took their lives after they were severely reprimanded for poor grades in school. Parents-teachers associations have to work together to relieve children of the terrifying idea that their personal worth depends on their grades.

Churches can help solve the problem not just by reminding congregations that suicide is a grave sin but also by invigorating its counseling centers and family and life apostolates that reach out to the depressed.

We can’t aim for a good society while hundreds among us feel so abandoned and helpless they just annihilate themselves.