Category: TRANSFORMATION STORIES

Actual events when individuals and communities experience shalom transformation

PBCI CELEBRATES WITH TALAANDIG’S “FEED 10,000 JOURNEY”

PBCI celebrates with the first year milestone of the “Feed 10,000 Journey” of the Talaandig Tribe The Talaandig tribe celebrated its first-year milestone of what it considers as a revolutionary effort against conventional farming and food systems. In 2014, the Talaandig started the “Feed 10,000 Journey” which aims to feed 10,000 people in a month. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/10/pbci-celebrates-with-talaandigs-feed-10000-journey/

NAIL CUTTER: A FRIENDSHIP TOOL

When I thought that after seven years of experience in peace work in Mindanao I have encountered most of existing tools to build peace and forge friendships, I discovered a new one which does not require strategic plans, logframes, or theories of change. It can be immediately used and implemented, easily accessed at home, and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/10/nail-cutter-a-friendship-tool/

DANN & JOJI PANTOJA OFF TO NORTH AMERICAN MINISTRY

Every three years, Dann & Joji Pantoja, the lead peace and reconciliation missionaries at PeaceBuilders Community, are assigned to speak at various church organizations, inter-faith gatherings, peace advocacy groups, and academic institutions. The Pantojas arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia in the evening of 10 September. Joji will be back in Davao on the second week …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/09/dann-joji-pantoja-off-to-north-american-ministry/

JOBELYN BASAS REPRESENTS PBCI TO PEACEBUILDING PARTNERS

Jobelyn Palo Basas is our new local intern. We call her “Jobey.”  She obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Community Development from Southern Christian College, Midsayap, Cotabato. Prior to coming to PBCI, she served as a psycho-social worker in an organization advocating and working for children’s rights. She has good working skills in dealing …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/09/jobelyn-basas-represents-pbci-to-peacebuilding-partners/

QUEENIE LIWAT CAMPAIGNS FOR PEACE IN NORTH COTABATO

Queenilyn Liwat grew up listening for gunfire. In her hometown of Banisilan, North Cotabato, she and her friends learned from an early age how to survive in a warzone. “Whenever there are gunshots, even if we are afraid, we have to be brave and alert, or else we will die like the others. There’s only …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/09/queenie-liwat-campaigns-for-peace-in-north-cotabato/

KRIZ CRUZADO MENTORS RESCUERS, SERVANTS

The drenched and shivering young woman cast her eyes frantically back and forth over the beach where the rescue volunteers had laid her down after pulling her from the breakers. “Where’s my mother?” she sobbed, “Oh, help! Someone, please find my mother!” She cried so piteously that one of the rescuers momentarily forgot all her …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/08/kriz-cruzado-mentors-rescuers-servants/

A CFP BARISTA’S INTERFAITH FRIENDSHIPS

In 2009, when she had worked for two years at the Davao City café operated by Coffee For Peace (CFP), Catherine Moreno Olitao received the offer of a job in Cotabato City, on the opposite coast of the island of Mindanao. The offer came from a Moro lady of importance named Bai Jehan Baraguir, whose …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/08/a-cfp-baristas-interfaith-friendships/

KRIZ CRUZADO’S PAR STUDENTS PREPARE FOR DISASTERS

Last week, in the Davao City offices of PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI), Kriz Cruzado and her assistant were revising field reports, sorting and transcribing receipts (“liquidating funds” in the Filipino English usage), and tying up the hundred loose ends of a nearly two year PBCI operation in the Visayan island region – a project which …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/08/kriz-cruzados-par-students-prepare-for-disasters/

PBCI FINALIZES PAR-DRN ORGANIZING IN EASTERN SAMAR

This month we mark the completion of a nearly two year PeaceBuilders Community Inc. operation designed to enhance the disaster response capabilities of the Church in the Visayan Islands of the central Philippines. From small beginnings, this program really took off thanks to the enthusiastic participation of the Visayan pastors and the financial backing of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/07/pbci-finalizes-par-drn-organizing-in-eastern-samar/

BARISTA CATHY OLITAO SPREADS THE FAIR TRADE MESSAGE

Longtime Coffee For Peace (CFP) barista Catherine Moreno Olitao wants the Philippines’ small farmers to hold onto their land. She sees how the modern, globalized economy squeezes the life out of traditional family based agriculture, pressuring poor rural folk to cash out and move to the city. Catherine’s farmer relatives live under this strain, and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/07/catherine-moreno-olitao-learning-and-teaching-at-coffee-for-peace/

RASSIERE RAMOS FINISHES COLLEGE THROUGH CFP SCHOLARSHIP

At the close of 2007, young Rassiere Ramos was near to despairing. Unable to pay his college tuition, he had recently been forced to drop out. Rassiere’s family had always been poor. He and his three siblings all longed to earn college degrees and find professional employment so as to help their parents. But the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/07/peacebuilder-profile-rassiere-ramos/

MORO AUTONOMY: A MINDANAOAN CHRISTIAN’S THIRTY-YEAR ADVOCACY

Young Jun Aparece pricked up his ears when Bobby Alonto began to tune the guitar. In the Muslim dormitory, on Mindanao State University’s main campus, Alonto and his brothers were about to launch into a chorus lauding their Moro people’s age-old, ongoing struggle for self-rule. It was the early 1980s, and nearly two decades of dictator Ferdinand …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/06/moro-autonomy-a-mindanaoan-christians-thirty-year-advocacy/

OUR GLOBAL PEACE COMMUNITY

Together with Mennonite Church Canada Witness and our international peacebuilding partners, we journey in companionship, nurturing relationships that strengthen our collective commitment to justice, reconciliation, and lasting peace.