THE XAVIER University-Ateneo de Cagayan partnered with the city government of Cagayan de Oro to launch a mental health and wellness project.

XU President Fr. Mars Tan and CDO Mayor Oscar Moreno recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement to formalize “Project Online Wellness Kontra Covid19 Initiatives or OWKCi”.

Moreno said that more people suffer from anxiety and more frontliners are mentally exhausted because of the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the city.

“Many changes happened in the life of people in the city. Isolation Units and Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities and days spent alone away from home and family in these isolation facilities give rise to drastic uncertainties and anxiety,” Moreno said.

Under the project, Fr. Tan ordered the creation of a team whose members possess the needed expertise and available resources to respond to the rising number of people with mental health and wellness issues.

“Project OWKCi will be implemented first to CIUs 24, 25, and 30. These are Xavier Ateneo facilities which are also lent to the city. The project’s activities will complement the ongoing programs and activities of the City’s Psycho-Social Division,” Tan said.

“XU, being a Jesuit University, always seeks to reach out to the wider community through which its mission is fulfilled based on its available expertise and resources. XU is part of the city—its members are citizens of the city, we want to help because we are a part of it,” he added.

Project OWKCi will form part of the sustained #XUKontraCovid19 institutional engagements under the Social Development cluster led by XU Vice President for Social Development Roel Ravanera.

The university units involved in the project include the Office for Mission and Ministry under VP Irene Guitarte, the Offices of Guidance and Counselling, Campus Ministries, Athletics Office, Xavier Center for Culture and the Arts, Xavier Center for Mental Health and Research, the social development center under the College of Arts and Sciences, and the SD programs.