Even though everyone in the team had a good time working with their volunteer placement counterpart in the UK, everyone was happy to have a new VP counterpart and new placements here in the Philippines.
Kang and Rebecca work for Balay Integrated Rehabilitation Center for Total Human Development (BIRTHDEV). It is a non-profit human rights institution that provides psychosocial rehabilitation to victims of armed conflict and other forms of disasters. BIRTHDEV works on the rehabilitation and empowerment of women and child survivors of armed conflict and other manmade disasters in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. It works towards their educational, psychological, economic, social and cultural development, to help women and children achieve their potential for and with others. The organisation aimed to develop the volunteers’ capacity in dealing with community people experiencing trauma and in need of emotional recovery affected by armed conflict and disasters.
Tonette and Dee are working at Civil Society Organisation-Forum for Peace (CSO-FP). CSOFP envisions a community of empowered peoples, living and working together to attain and sustain a progressive society, where lasting peace reign amidst diverse cultures. It functions as a point of convergence of collaborative peace efforts and the advancement of people-centered development agenda in the Lanao areas, in particular and in Mindanao, in general. It conducts media advocacy, peace forums, peace rallies, peace dialogues and other peace-building initiatives with organizations. CSO-FP aimed to train volunteers to develop website requirements and other information-education-communication campaigns, to maximize information drive on advocating peace in Iligan and Mindanao and to assist in its media role in networking and alliance-building. The volunteers will also be exposed in good governance workshop and development of learning module on environmental education.
Joseph and Tom work at Grassroots Peace-Building Resource Center (GPRC). It is an organization designed to enhance the capacity and capability of Mindanao grassroots peace builders and to build the Mindanao peace constituency. GPRC focuses on the education and empowerment of communities, institutions and individuals as justice and peace builders and as catalysts for sustainable relationships throughout Mindanao. GPRC seeks to deepen commitment to justice and peace, increase respect for cultural diversity and human rights, and strengthen right relationships amongst individuals, communities and institutions throughout Mindanao for the promotion of a culture of peace. GPRC’s promising experiences for the volunteers is to provide venue for exchange and interaction with the local youth beneficiaries in Iligan and to tap available human resources to help accomplish and achieve target program outputs through facilitation in youth workshops, visits to schools and communities, designing of modules with partner-youth beneficiaries and other peace advocacy programs.
Elbert and Ruth are placed at Kapamagogopa Incorporated (KI). The organization was founded to positively change the five-century old conflict in Mindanao between Christians and Muslims and the alienation of indigenous peoples. It provides opportunities for young Muslim adults by giving them the chance to break social isolation and to work in multi-cultural environments. It also aims to support the professional development of young Muslims, who are eager to voice the rights of self-determination and to break the stereotypes of Muslims who are seen as recipients, with no or little recognition of their skills or contribution to development and peace building. The volunteers are expected to help in the implementation of resource mobilization activities working alongside with its Muslim youth volunteers all over Lanao and in the efforts to conduct peace-building activities during the Lanao Peace Month by organizing a youth interfaith forum and to assist in the production of an institutional video, newsletters and case studies.
Ajeet and Catherine are assigned at Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) – Iligan Center for Peace Education and Research (ICPER). The ICPER is involved in partnership with the other peace centers of the MSU System under the office of the Institute for Peace and Development of Mindanao. It conducts training on the teaching of peace, on peace research to researchers from higher education institutions and development workers from the civil society, on inner peace to diverse groups as the military, youth and the indigenous peoples and on the culture of peace to various partners. It has also completed researches on the internally displaced persons in Central Mindanao and the status of the access of the Muslim youth to higher education in Mindanao. The volunteers are expected to support the programs of MSU-IIT and ICPER and its efforts on facilitation, documentation and community-organizing by the incorporation of peace education in the curriculum, conducting workshops, promoting culture of peace in its student population and mobilization of poverty alleviation programs in the different MSU areas of work in Mindanao.
Meh-Anne and Becs work with Lanao Educational Arts for Development (LEAD). LEAD aims to promote peace advocacy though artistic media such as music, concerts, theater shows, cultural festivals and music workshops. Generally, it provides promotion of alternative music and theater in creating a community for peace along with young people of Iligan City and Lanao del Norte. The pair will assist in the planned 29 August “Save the Rivers, Save Life” major concert production and to help in the Suarez-IISHAI Performing Arts Group’s community activities and other creative theater productions.
Shailoe and Ferg work at Pailig Development Foundation. Pailig aims to help build empowered, self-reliant, gender-sensitive, environment-friendly and peaceful communities through sustainable integrated area development in partnership with local government units, peoples organizations and other stakeholders. It operates through a rights-based people empowerment approach, peace-building, international development partnerships, rural development, microfinance, natural resources and through development education and research. The volunteers will participate in its health reform project and its marketing enhancement and development education project through information-sharing, documentation, coaching and mentoring and organization of volunteer road shows for students and professionals.
Aili and Hannah are working with Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Assistance Center (RDRRAC). The organization’s main line of work is disaster management, which includes emergency response, disaster preparedness, and post-disaster intervention such as rehabilitation. RDRRAC also focuses on the promotion of human rights as incorporated in its disaster management work. It is also involved in various education efforts with grassroot communities and sectors. Aili and Hannah are expected to contribute in the implementation of RDRRAC programs through resource generation and expansion of networks and linkages by providing institutional orientations and meetings, immersion to project areas, debriefing and assessment and in the production and packaging of resource generation materials.
Pat and Dom are placed at Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits (EcoWEB) Inc. It is a development organization whose foundation is structured by people involved in real time development work for more than a decade. The organizational challenges confronting development organizations has motivated the initiators of this organization to pursue a paradigm inspired by the “web making” concept of John Paul Lederach, one of the world’s foremost experts on peace-building and reconciliation. The concept is described as the art of strategically and imaginatively weaving a relational web across social spaces within settings of conflict and unpredictable and changing environment. This concept finds visible relevance in the context of the dynamics of the situation in Mindanao, particularly in Lanao where the organization’s work is focused. (EcoWEB), Inc. resolves to serve as a hub of cooperation and pooling of efforts of identified organizations working for peace and development. Efforts will focus on some identified concerns which have interlinking mode towards shaping a more developed, peaceful and sustainable communities within the identified area of coverage.
The team is now ready to take the challenges here in Mindanao and at the same time learn and contribute to their respective volunteer placements.
Mary Antonette Abello