Category: INTER-FAITH DIALOGUE
At Mennonite Church Canada, they refer to this as Peace Learning Tour Philippines. For us at PBCI-CFP Team, we see these partners and friends as faith-siblings who did accompany us in our field work. This field trip happened last 13-22 January 2023. Norm Dyck led the group — Andrea, Anita, Brent, Dorothea, Dorothy, Edna, Lois, and Rose. They travelled with us, the Inclusive Development Team of PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. and Coffee for Peace (PBCI-CFP IncluDev Team), and visited some of our field partners in Mindanao. The tour included visiting Davao Bible Community, our local church partner; the Talaandig Indigenous People’s community; the Obo Manobo IP community and our common partner, the Energy Development Corporation; the Tri-People’s Farm owned by Romy and Lulu Elusfa; and the Bagobo Tagabawa IP community. We concluded the tour with a rest and recreation day at the Paradise Beach Resort.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2023/01/canadian-peace-learning-tour-participants-accompanied-us-in-our-field-work/
A total of 500 Teduray and Lambangian families affected by “Paeng” were identified by their local Indigenous Political Structure as most vulnerable. WEA Manila, led by Bishop Efraim Tendero, sent 500 Sphere Standard Relief Packs to two communities of Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (NMIP) within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The first wave of relief operations was done last 15-16 November in Barangay Kuya, Municipality of South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur. The second wave was done last 14-16 December in Barangay Matuber, Municipality of Datu Blah Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte. PeaceBuilders Community served as the “delivery team” along with the enthusiastic volunteers from Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Formal courtesy letters were sent to municipal, barangay, and military authorities.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/12/wea-manila-brings-relief-supplies-to-teduray-lambangian-tribes-through-pbci-tjg-part-2/
The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) was severely affected by Typhoon Paeng (international name Nalgae). According to a report by ReliefWeb International, in this region alone, around 1 million people or 202,000 families were affected. 467,000 people were displaced. The death toll is 51, and 14 are missing. Within the BARMM, we’re focusing on the Teduray and Lambangian Tribes — the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples in the region. PBCI works in partnership with the Timuay Justice and Governance regarding the needs on the ground. We’re also charged by Bishop Efraim Tendero of WEA Manila to deliver Core Humanitarian Standard packs to 500 Teduray and Lambangian families.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/11/wea-manila-brings-relief-supplies-to-teduray-lambangian-tribes-through-pbci-tjg-part-1/
How does Social Entrepreneurship look like when seen through the lenses of Indigenous Knowledge System and Practices (IKSP)? Last 09-11 November 2022, our Inclusive Development Team travelled to the Talaandig Ancestral Territory in Bukidnon. With the guidance of Datu Migketay Saway and of some Talaandig women and youth, we invested a couple of days seeking to design a Social Enterprise development model that would be sensitive to the worldviews, value systems, and customs of Indigenous Peoples. This is made possible in partnership with the University of the Philippines Mindanao (UP Mindanao) and the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT).
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2022/11/budding-talaandig-social-entrepreneurs-finish-their-second-training-session/
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/
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/
Our relationship with Edsal Edres started when our peacebuilding network visited our Meranaw partners during the Marawi Crisis. We got involved in peacebuilding activities together, including: fact-finding mission at the very heart of the war zone; Christian-Muslim inter-faith dialogue on peace; joint peacebuilding strategic planning among leaders of civil society organizations; lobbying at the Congress and Senate of the Philippines; and, livelihood initiatives among families affected by war. We are now focused on Inclusive Development and Social Entrepreneurship as an approach to help the war affected families to rise-up from the ravages of armed conflict.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/08/our-journey-with-edsal-a-meranaw-peacebuilding-partner-continues-through-social-enterprise/
Sixteen members of Kapeyapaan Farmers’ Association (KFA) in the Municipality of Bansalan, Province of Davao del Sur have completed their six-month training in Social Entrepreneurship. This course is framed in a system of values called Peace and Reconciliation Principles and Practices. Among the 16 vegetable and coffee farmers who have graduated from the course, 6 were elected as founding officers. This initiative is part of a long term Inclusive Development partnership program between the PeaceBuilders Community, Coffee for Peace, and KFA Bansalan.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/07/founding-leaders-and-members-of-kfa-bansalan-completes-social-entrepreneurial-training/
Friday, 25 June 2021. We rejoice with the Bagobo Tagabawa Tribe for the completion of their cultural village and peace memorial complex. This was originally envisioned by Bai Jerlina Owok, the local chieftain at Barangay Binaton in Digos City, Davao del Sur. They started building their local village to make their community more visible and to tell their story beyond their tribal community. Because of their initiative, various sectors—government, business, civil society, and media—responded and helped concretize their vision. While celebrating with the tribe about these developments, we also reflect on issues regarding encroachment of certain powerful forces into the ancestral domain of the Bagobo Tagabawa.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/06/commemoration-celebration-and-reflection-a-spiritual-journey-with-the-bagobo-tagabawa/
Like eagles with renewed wings in our 60s, we feel re-energized as we were signing up for a new three-year term as church-based peacebuilding workers. We did a content analysis of our current work as partners in this ministry, as married couple, and as fellow professionals in our respective fields. The dominant terms that floated were Peace and Reconciliation, Inclusive Development, and Social Entrepreneurship. Once more, we’re able to define and to clarify the basic concepts and activities involved in our Covenant of Service (2021-2024) with Mennonite Church Canada Witness. We are grateful for this blessing and are excited to be entrusted with an exciting set of field responsibilities.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/05/peace-and-reconciliation-through-inclusive-development-and-social-entrepreneurship/
Two years after the Olimpain family participated in the Coffee Farming and Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) training, the PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. Inclusive Development (PBCI IncluDev) Team revisited their farm to follow-up on the development of their coffee plantation.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/03/a-visit-to-the-olimpain-farm/
Last Sunday, 07 March 2021, I had the pleasure of meeting a tribal chieftain. As we traveled through the hilly landscapes of Northern Mindanao, Bai Jerlina Owok entertained us with stories from her journey as the Bagobo Tagabawa chieftain in Barangay Binaton, Digos City. She shared the story of how she reclaimed her identity as a Bagobo Tagabawa when she reached the summit of Mount Apo—the highest mountain in the Philippines.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/03/power-peace-and-kinship-indigenous-leaders-share-their-dreams/
