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THE
PEACE AND RECONCILIATION TEAMS
Peace and Reconciliation Teams (PAR-T) are composed of local volunteers from various communities who are partnered with
international volunteers. They are jointly trained for 8 months in the following areas
—
:: Armed Conflict Area Survival Training
:: Fact-Finding
Missions
:: Conflict
Transformation
:: Disaster
Preparedness
:: Trauma Healing
:: Inter-Faith
Dialogue
:: Medical and
Relief Operations
:: Development
Communications
:: Cross-Cultural
Communications
:: Personal Growth
& Development
TEAMS' CURRENT STATUS: Q2-2010
:: Ligawasan PAR Team 1:
Deployed & Active
:: Ranao PAR Team: Deployed
& Active
:: University PAR Team:
Deployed & Active
:: Central Luzon PAR Team:
Field Testing
:: Greater Davao Area PAR Team: Organizing
:: Bukidnon PAR Team: Organizing
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MISSION OF THE PEACE AND RECONCILIATION TEAMS
:: To promote peace
and reconciliation in our land by giving skilled, courageous
support to communities experiencing various conflicts
:: To inspire
various parties-in-conflict to discard violence in favor of nonviolent action as a means of settling differences
:: To provide various
communities
with first-hand information and resources for responding to situations of conflict,
and to urge their active involvement
:: To interpret a
nonviolent perspective to the media and to our nation as a whole
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23
LEADERS PARTICIPATE IN CL PAR CATALYST SEMINAR
By Dann
Pantoja, March 23, 2010, Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija,
Philippines
Twenty-three
community leaders participated in the First Central Luzon
Peace and Reconciliation Catalyst Seminar, held in
Cabanatuan City last March 23, 2010. This is part of
Peacebuilders Community's PAR
Team Organizing in Luzon-- the northern island of the
Philippines.
These
participants are leaders of the Association of Ministers and
Ministries in Nueva Ecija (AMMNE). They are bishops,
pastors, family-life counsellors, professors, doctors and civil
society executives. Bishop John Tayoto and his staff from
the Asian Center of
Leadership and Education coordinated this event.
AMMNE envisions to invite, train, organize, and mobilize a Peace
and Reconciliation Team (PAR-T) from a group of provincial
leaders who would, in turn, invite, train, organize, and
mobilize PAR-Ts in various municipalities in Nueva Ecija.
Most of these teams would be specializing in Disaster
Preparation and will be field-tested in strategic communities in
Central Luzon. The training and preparation will include
various skills in responding to both natural and man-made
disasters.
Peacebuilders Community aims to help increase the disaster
preparedness of our partner communities in key areas of Central
Luzon. In order to achieve our goal, (a) we have to
increase the capacity of our local community partners to respond
to disasters caused by natural hazards and conflict; and, (b) we
have to increase local disaster coordination among related
agencies present in partner communities.
This PAR-T organizing in Central
Luzon is done in partnership with the Mennonite
Central Committee, Peace
Mennonite Church, Mennonite
Church Canada, Coffee
for Peace, Philippine
Council of Evangelical Churches, and the Integrated
Mennonite Churches in the Philippines.
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DAVAO
UNIVERSITY PAR TEAM IS LAUNCHED By
Bennette Grace Tenecio, PARTO, Davao University PAR
Zone
Energetic.
Bubbly. Critical thinkers. Highly opinionated.
Smart. Creative. That’s how I describe my
trainees.
University
Peace and Reconciliation Zone is a pilot project of
Peacebuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) to start a peace movement
among university students in Mindanao. When I learned that I’ll be assigned as
the PAR Team Organizer (PARTO) of the University PAR, I was excited and
challenged at the same time. I'm excited because I used to
be a campus worker and really loved it. I'm challenged
because I know that this will be a high-energy commitment!
So, I started to pray and to plan on how to go
about it. Like what I used to do a few months before
actually joining PBCI, I hanged out at the Coffee for Peace.
It was, and still is, my favorite thing to do.
While sitting comfortably on the couch, I heard two students
talking about the wall pictures in the coffee shop. One
blurted: “I want to be like them. People who work for
peace!”
"This is it!" I said to myself. "I have to
grab this opportunity to talk to these students."
And I did.
Now, that student is the core leader of the University PAR.
It’s so amazing how everything got in-sync with the plans
In the first quarter, key universities were identified and begin
to look for students who are willing to be part of the
University PAR. Students from University of the Philippines
Mindanao Campus, Ateneo
de Davao University, University
of Mindanao
and Holy Cross of Davao City were given orientation about the
University PAR. Only the students from ADDU (Ateneo de Davao
University) and HCDC (Holy Cross of Davao City) expressed their
commitment to be trained and be part of the University PAR.
Hanging out with these students is part of the mentoring
sessions. Visiting them in their campus is a great experience.
Learning their struggles and conflicts in a students’ context
is a great challenge but at the same time an encouragement.
Training them about peace and reconciliation in their lenses is
a big deal. Students have unique issues about peace and they
have unique ideas on how to deal with it. These are students of
Mass Communications, International Studies (Majoring in American
Studies) and Engineering. They come from different year
levels. Some are freshmen and some are in their third
year.
Listening to their different stories and their hopes on how to
achieve peace and reconciliation in our land made me think that
their youthful ideas and idealism bring hope. It is
possible to achieve the Salam-Shalom that we are praying and
hoping to happen.
Right now, these students are on their PAR (Peace and
Reconciliation) Basic Course training. They are so eager to
learn and excited to be exposed in peacebuilding work. Continued
discussions and questions are entertained in every campus visits
and e-group interaction. Our “tambayan” (hang-out),
the PBCI office, is fast becoming to be the home of the
University PAR Team.
One of them articulated the groups' heart well: “We want to be
a catalyst of peace here in our land and we want our voices to
be heard.”
Looking at peace through the students' lenses energizes me to
continue this journey--to walk with these students to help
achieve peace and reconciliation in our land.
(Follow the University PAR Team on Facebook)
September
16, 2009
Davao City
Bennette Grace Tenecio is University PAR Team
Organizer and Trauma Healing Program Specialist at PBCI. With
her master's degree in Clinical Psychology, Benette has various experiences working with
children and youth. She served as a university campus
worker in Metro Manila for a number of years. Now, she has decided to
serve in Mindanao where she was born, the place she considers
home.
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FIRST RANAO PAR ZONE HEALTH CARE TRAINING LAUNCHED By
Mei Solocasa, PARTO, Ranao PAR Zone
MAY 04-08, 2009, Poona Piagapo, Lanao del Norte--Peacebuilders
Community, Reach International and ECOWeb worked together to
start the Healthcare Training and Services in this municipality.
The 2-day training was participated by 32 people from the
6 baranggays (Nunungan, Pyangamangaan, Pantao, Kablangan, Pantao
Raya, Poblacion) of the municipality.
On the third day, the trainees were exposed to a medical
clinic accommodating 82 patients who come from the said
barangays.
The medical team was welcomed warmly by the Maranao community,
and was given the opportunity to live closely with their
language and culture. In spite of the hardships to rehabilitate
their communities after the devastation caused by armed
encounters that happened last August 2008, the team was warmly
offered with places to sleep and food to eat during the stay.
The team was hosted in Poblacion during the first 3 days of the
healthcare training, and was hosted in Pyangamangaan during the
remaining 2 days of the medical clinic.
The people in these communities hardly get checked-up by a
medical doctor. They
do not even have much opportunities to visit the municipal
health center. The roads are almost impossible to pass through
due to its perilous condition. If it is heavily raining, people
prefer to walk for 5 hours, rather than ride on a horse or truck
or motorcycle and risk falling on the cliff or meet an accident
on the “roller-coaster” road. The nearest health center from
where the team held its medical clinic is 2 hours walk away, and
this is one of the reasons why pregnant women don’t get
pre-natal check-up, thus increasing the cases of pregnancy
complications, such as hemorrhaging, septicemia (infection),
abortion, and etc.
It is a fulfillment to the team to get started in Poona Piagapo,
and we continue to pray that the 32 healthcare trainees would be
sustained for the next 9 months of the training. We are doing
our best so that the 82 patients would remember the healthcare
teachings that we shared with them.
In our public health trainings, we stress that a lot of
remedies to their diseases could be easily found in their own
community, such as corn silk tea for edematous pregnant women,
steam therapy for those who could hardly breathe due to phlegm
and nasal secretions, and a lot more.
The five-day work of the medical team seemed to be a five-day
vacation. The work became enjoyable as we all shared our
strengths and weaknesses with each other. Most members of our
team also learned some Maranao words and phrases, and were able
to appreciate the distinctive taste of Maranao dishes due to its
spices—locally called "palapa" (a mixture of onion,
ginger, and chilli).
The first week of training finally began.
I'm looking forward for more meaningful moments with the
Maranao people in the next months to come.
In spite of the differences on our languages, beliefs,
religions, and cultures, I've again experienced, that
love---outweighs our differences.
(Follow
Mei Solocasa's journey on Facebook!)
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FIRST PEACE AND RECONCILIATION TEAM
SENT-OUT FOR DUTY
IN MIDSAYAP by Dann Pantoja, Director of Field
Operations
Davao
City, March 31, 2008. 18 young people from the three people groups of
Mindanao (Bangsamoro, Lumad, and Migrants) finished the one-year
training course to qualify as members of the Peace
and Reconciliation Team (PAR-T). These teams
are composed of local volunteers from various conflict areas of
Mindanao.
To
be effective agents of peace and reconciliation, they were
required to undergo training in —
:: fact-finding
missions
:: information
management
:: peace education
:: justice advocacy
:: inter-faith
dialogue
:: cross-cultural
communications
:: conflict
transformation
:: medical and
relief operations
:: trauma healing
:: personal growth
& development
Elwyn Neri was the one who gathered, trained, and nurtured these
young people to become a team. He stayed in Midsayap,
North Cotabato for eight months to build the first PAR-T.
Each member of this team is aware of what is expected of them as
individuals:
:: to qualify and recruit two more PAR-T
trainees within six months
:: to pursue further training in Peace and
Reconciliation 2 and 3 and other
supplementary modules
:: to be available anytime their services are
needed in a conflict area
These volunteers are currently operating in Central Mindanao in
partnership with the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA),
Southern Christian College's Community Education Research and
Extension Administration (SCC-CEREA), and the Mindanao People's
Peace Movement (MPPM).
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HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN OUR PEACE AND RECONCILIATION TEAMS
:: Information for Applicants in PDF Format 
:: Application Form in MS Word Format 
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