Category: SOCIO-POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION
Stories and ideas about being in harmony and at peace with Others.
Last 25-28 April, leaders of a Zambales-based Fresh Hope Agape Center (FHAC) Inc. visited PeaceBuilders Community Inc. (PBCI) and Coffee For Peace (CFP) in Davao. The purpose of their visit was to get actual coffee farm exposure, to get post-harvest processing experience, and to go through Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) seminar. FHAC provides education and livelihood support to marginalized communities in Zambales. Their work is especially focused on Aeta Indigenous People’s community in Zambales.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/04/friends-working-among-zambales-aetas-establish-partnership-with-pbci-cfp-team/
We look at our our national situation through the lens of shalom-based transformation — that is, harmony with the Creator (spiritual-ethical transformation), harmony with our being (psycho-social transformation), harmony with others (socio-political transformation), and harmony with the creation (economic-ecological transformation). This season, when we commemorate the suffering and death of the Prince of Shalom, we reflect on the condition of our people and our land. This season, when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, we also want to celebrate the glimpses of renewed life in our society.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/04/praying-for-our-national-situation-during-the-2022-holy-week/
EDSA is the term we use to signify the People’s Power Revolution that brought down the Marcos dictatorial regime in 22-25 February 1986. EDSA, or Efipanio Delos Santos Avenue, was the place where millions of people gathered together that led to the dismantling of the violent and murderous Marcos Martial Rule. This week, the government of the Philippines is officially celebrating the EDSA, but Duterte is not scheduled to attend any EDSA Revolution commemorative activity. Each year, I go on a retreat to personally celebrate and remember my fallen colleagues as part of my personal healing. Here is my journal this year.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/02/the-healing-power-of-remembering-what-edsa-means-to-me/
As part of their two-day monthly training on “Inclusive Development & Farmerpreneurship,” (a 6-month training program), key farmers and community leaders of Mandaya Indigenous People from Pantuyan, Caraga, Davao Oriental had coffee production exposure trip to A and J Mahayahay Farm and to the CFP post-harvest processing facilities at the Malipayon Peace Hub in Managa, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. I lead this activity in my capacity as Vice President for Community Partnership at Coffee for Peace(CFP). I’m being supported by Aldren Banal, Operations Manager at CFP, who happens to be my husband.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/02/mandaya-farmers-travelled-to-aj-farm-and-coffee-for-peace-as-part-of-their-six-month-training/
This is a new phase in our work as justice-based peacebuilders and inclusive development workers here in Mindanao. We are working with the University of the Philippines – Mindanao (UP Mindanao) and with the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) to further develop our capacity to preserve, systematize, teach, and share what we have been learning in the area of peacebuilding, inclusive development, and social entrepreneurship – all framed in justice-based Peace and Reconciliation Principles.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/01/were-working-with-academic-institutions-to-develop-a-social-enterprise-incubator/
We are still focused on our vision. The vision is that, by 31 December 2030, each of our provinces will have a circle of leaders called Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) Communities. They would serve as radical, peaceful transformation volunteers in their respective families, spiritual communities, neighborhoods, barangays, cities, or municipalities. The PAR Communities would also get involved in sustainable and regenerative programs that are indigenous to their specific context.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/01/looking-back-to-2021-and-looking-forward-to-2022-through-the-lenses-of-our-vision/
The Mandaya Community is the lead organization who defines, determines, and the final assessor of this inclusive development initiative. We spend at least 50% of our seminar time doing active, documented listening. The primary value we have been hearing is about their indigenous spirituality. From this spiritual base and lens, we get a better understanding of their concepts of liberation and their ideas of their right to self-determination. Then collaborative development happens in their own contexts—Mandaya worldview, Mandaya values system, Mandaya behavior patterns, and Mandaya customary laws.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/12/among-mandaya-indigenous-communities-inclusive-development-starts-with-spirituality/
The Board of Directors of the Kapeyapaan Farmers Association in Bansalan, Davao del Sur met last Wednesday, 01 December 2021. They outlined their objectives for the coming year 2022. They are as follows: to streamline farm to market operation; to complete the collection of members’ contribution towards the association fund of PhP2,000 each; to complete the registration with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as a regional farmers association; and, to get members’ Good Agricultural Practices Certification from the Department of Agriculture.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/12/the-kapeyapaan-farmers-association-in-bansalan-meets-for-2022-plans/
Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the execution of Andres Bonifacio. But we are not commemorating this today, Bonifacio Day. We are celebrating instead his birthday. Is it because our revolutionary narrative is marred by powerplay, jealousy, and murderous intentions among leaders? We, as a former colonized nation, may need to revisit our history. We may need to decolonize ourselves from Spanish and American narratives in our consciousness as a people. But beware of the Marcos historical revisionism that is corrupting our historical decolonization process.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/11/bonifacios-death-and-historical-decolonization-revisiting-but-not-revising-history/
I heard that the Ayala Corporation is supporting social enterprises by offering free space in their chain of malls throughout the country. Last 19 April 2021, I got a call from one of their representatives inquiring if I was interested in opening a 26-square-meter shop at the Ayala Abreeza Mall in Davao City as part of their Alagang Ayala Land Program. My first reaction was to pray. Then I established my objectives in light of the vision and mission of Coffee for Peace. I presented the plan to our community and to the management team of CFP. Our team recruited new interns and prepared them for this opportunity. Last 16 September 2021, we opened the Coffee for Peace Kiosk at Abreeza.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/09/coffee-for-peace-opens-a-kiosk-at-the-abreeza-mall-in-davao-city/
16-17 September 2021. After the six-month Inclusive Development Training, the Bagobo Tagabawa community in Barangay Binaton, Digos City begins a long-term partnership with the PBCI-CFP Tribe. This partnership involves community-based, culturally contextualized Social Enterprise Development framed in Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) principles and practices. Because 80% of the participants in this program are women, we are giving greater emphasis on indigenous women’s leadership development. We are sharing the aspiration of the Bagobo Tagabawa Indigenous People to realize and enjoy their right to self-determination and to protect their ancestral domain.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/09/the-bagobo-tagabawa-in-binaton-completes-six-month-includev-training/
Sihaya Ansibod, PBCI Director of Field Operations, developed the Farm Visitation Program to get first-hand and up-to-date information on the state of our farming partners’ lives, wellness, farming successes, farming challenges, and aspirations. We’re passionate about holistic and inclusive development. We’re very careful not to impose coffee farming if it’s not appropriate in a given social, cultural, or geographical context. We, at PBCI-CFP Tribe, believe that this Farm Visitation Program, an aspect of our on-going Participatory Action Research (PAR) around Mt. Apo, would help us to be true to our philosophy of development — from the ground up.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/08/field-operations-team-deepens-relationships-with-partners-through-farm-visits/
