The present disclosure provides a method for enabling events in a COBOL program, including maintaining, in a COBOL program, a index including a process identifier and an event associated with a child process. The method includes placing the child process in a wait state and signaling, by the COBOL program, the child process to run using the process identifier and the event associated with the child process. A system for coordinating processing in COBOL programs is also provided. The system includes a first COBOL program having a first routine for processing, a second COBOL program having a second routine for processing, and a module callable by the first and second COBOL programs. The module maintains a state sharable between the first and second COBOL programs to coordinate the processing of the first and second routines.