Category: INTER-FAITH DIALOGUE
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/
This is my expression of support to the call of my Palestinian Christian brother and friend, The Rev. Dr. Jack Sara. “I have already written several articles on this subject, expressing how so many of those so-called ‘Evangelical leaders’ have not been helpful in achieving peace here,” he laments. “As we mark the seventy-second year of the nakba,” he adds, “I call upon Christians around the world to help us say enough of the injustice and to join us in prophetically speaking against systems that instill suffering and strife on a weak and almost helpless people.”
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/05/i-support-my-palestinian-sisters-and-brothers-as-we-commemorate-the-72nd-year-of-al-nakba/
Our Ama, Lakan Sumulong, led the Inclusive Development Team of PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) and Coffee for Peace (CFP) to celebrate with the Indigenous Peoples and the Bangsamoro in affirming their kinship at the Talaandig Ancestral Territory at the foot of Mt. Kitanglad. The Settlers have been actively participating in this celebration for the past 9 years.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/03/pbci-cfp-tribe-participates-in-the-9th-celebration-of-ip-moro-kinship-affirmation/
08-17 January 2020. Three Indigenous Communities in Mindanao welcomed the visit of 12 Canadians from Southern Ontario. This is part of PBCI-CFP Inclusive Development Team’s initiative to facilitate the connection between the coffee farming communities and prospective impact investors and market representatives. This relationship-building and social entrepreneurial partnership is based on justice, peace, and reconciliation.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2020/01/ip-communities-welcome-canadian-inclusive-development-partners/
Abu Dhabi, 09-11 December 2019 — H.E. Dr. Mohammad Al Kaabi (Chairman of the Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, UAE), and H.E. Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies) honored Al Haj Ahod ‘Murad’ Ebrahim (Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and Bishop Efraim Tendero (Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance) for their inter-faith peacebuilding contributions in southern Philippines. The awards were presented before the 500+ political, religious, and civil society leaders from 80 countries during the 6th Assembly of the Forum for Promoting Peace, The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/12/uae-based-forum-for-promoting-peace-in-muslim-societies-honors-chief-minister-ebrahim-and-bishop-tendero/
12-13 October 2019, Talaandig Ancestral Territory — It was a blessing to be a participant in a series of Talaandig rituals, a gathering together as a people before the Creator for worship. It was a time to ask for the Creator’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, and blessings to the people and to the land. It was a time to affirm, as one people, the harmonious relationship between the Creator, the people, and the whole creation — wherein the spiritual and the physical realities interplay in the same realm.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/10/pbci-cfp-tribe-participates-in-the-talaandig-indigenous-celebration/
10-13 September 2019. Sihaya Ansibod, our Director of Field Operations, invited me to travel with her team. First, we met with our partners among the Erumanen Ne Menuvu tribe on Mt. Agkir-Agkir. Then we visited the Iranun coffee farmers in Alamada who invited us to market their coffee. Afterwards, we responded to an invitation of a Maguindanao farming community who envisions to develop a Robusta coffee plantation near Ligawasan Marshlands. Finally, we sealed our partnership with the Obo Bagobo coffee farmers in Ilomavis at the foot of Mt. Apo.
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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2019/09/sihaya-solidifies-inclusive-development-network-in-central-mindanao-and-davao-region/
