Women Who Do More: A Frontliner Highlight

The past few weeks have seen all of us go from busy on the streets to quarantined in our homes in an attempt to minimize contact and control the spread of the novel coronavirus, Covid-19.

However, there are still those who continue to serve on the frontlines. In order to keep everyone safe and healthy, grocery store employees, delivery personnel, and health workers persevere each day despite the travel restrictions and the need to isolate from family and friends.

One of these amazing frontliners was kind enough to sit down for a live with the Ellana community to share her story. Meet Leah Secillano-Trovela, a nurse working at one of the nation’s Covid-19 wards.

Watch Leah's one-on-one live recap here.

Leah has been working 24-hour shifts at the Covid-19 ward of the Rizal Medical Center since the start of enhanced community quarantine, around March 16th. The job is difficult, and not just because of the high risk of catching sickness yourself; the loneliness and desperation that some patients experience wears the staff down.

“The hardest part is dealing with a patient that feels like they’ll never see their family again.”

Treating patients like family takes a lot of emotional energy; medical frontliners must handle physical labor along with intense emotional weight in the process of helping their patients recover, all while being apart from their own family and friends.

Despite the emotional setbacks, Leah highlights one silver lining: Teamwork. Working long hours and living side by side in the dorms, they take each day as it comes and surround each other with positive vibes.

“We’re happy to serve. Everyday, we make it a point to laugh, to crack jokes. We eat together and get on Tiktok.”

Aiding the sick in their journey towards recovery may be a tough job, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor. And there’s a lot of appreciation for those who support them from afar; Leah expresses how supportive messages uplift the team’s spirits, and asks people to pray and to stay home while the frontliners work to flatten the curve.

As we continue to power through the enhanced community quarantine, we hope that bringing these stories of frontliners and frontliner supporters to light helps remind us all that true beauty is striving to do and be more for others, even in difficult circumstances!

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The Ellana community is full of amazing frontliners like Leah - scroll down to read their thoughts and motivations during the Covid-19 lockdown!