Category: PSYCHO-SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Stories and ideas about being in harmony and at peace with one's Being.

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/

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/

PBCI VOLUNTEER ASSASSINATED; FIVE NEW PAR MONITORS COMMISSIONED

For more than two decades, an indigenous southern Philippine tribe, the Dulangan Manobo of Sultan Kudarat Province, have reportedly been harassed, intimidated, and forced to struggle for the right to live and to practice their livelihoods within their own ancestral territory. Since 1992, when government contracts placed much of the Dulangan Manobo territory under the control of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/05/one-pbci-volunteer-slain-five-new-par-monitors-commissioned/

CMU STARTS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIATION

  Peacebuilders Community, Inc. was invited by Central Mindanao University (CMU) as consultant for Proposal Writing for Peace Process last April 28-29, 2015. The said activity was participated by selected professors who are members of Mt. Kalayo Institute for Social Enterprise Growth (MKESEG). CMU decided to have this kind of workshop because they believed that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/04/cmu-starts-university-center-for-peace-and-reconciliation/

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND THE MENNONITES: FROM PANAMA TO THE PHILIPPINES

One of the most distressing calls for justice around the world today comes from the Indigenous voice. Amplified by the indignities suffered through historic theft and displacement of their life and land, their marginalization today is a story told to many but heard by few. As the world changes so must they, but how they …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/indigenous-rights-and-the-mennonites-from-panama-to-the-philippines/

STRENGTHENING OUR RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CORDILLERAS

  On Monday the 16th, after attending the spectacular Awong Chi Gangsa ceremony, we enjoyed an afternoon of good fellowship at the Grand Zion Hotel. Darnell, Regina and Bryan from PeaceChurch; Twinkle’s mother, grandmother, and cousins; and Kuya Dann talked of all their dreams and plans for PeaceChurch in Manila, and for Twinkle’s PAR network …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/strengthening-our-relationship-in-the-cordilleras/

A LECTURE IN KALINGA HISTORY

  In Tabuk City, on Saturday the 14th, we met with the farmers of Asimbanglan. Hart and Ginny Wiens hosted the meeting, and they helped us to explain to the farmers that it had never been our intention to mislead them or to leave them hanging. Kuya Dann gave the farmers a rundown of the many …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/cordillera-listening-tour-part-4-feb-14-15/

CORDILLERAN LEADERS SHARE THEIR STORIES WITH PBCI

  In the mid-morning of Saturday, February 7th, I and PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) CEO Rev. Dann Pantoja (Kuya Dann to me) boarded a bus in Manila bound for Baguio City. It was the start of PeaceBuilders’ February 2015 Listening Tour in the Cordillera Region, with objectives which I have previously detailed. We spent the night of the 7th at the Baguio Village …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/02/cordillera-listening-tour-part-1-feb-7-9/

PBCI MOURNS FOR THOSE KILLED IN MAMASAPANO CLASH

We at PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the 44 men of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force, and also to the families of the 16 members of the Moro community, who lost their lives in Mamasapano, Maguindano during a tragic clash in the pre-dawn hours of 25 January 2015. As …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/01/pbci-mourns-for-the-mamasapano-victims/

OUR PEACEBUILDING PLANS FOR THE NEW YEAR

  As the PeaceBuilders team embarks upon another year of ministry, many projects and needs call for our attentions. In order to practice good stewardship of the talents and resources that God has entrusted to us, it is necessary for us prayerfully to evaluate which of all these potential projects requires urgent and immediate action. We must also endeavor to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2015/01/our-peacebuilding-plans-for-the-new-year/

UBJP IS A POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MINDANAO PEACE PROCESS

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has organized the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP). Its First Volunteers’ General Assembly was held last 23-25 December 2014 in Camp Darapanan, Barangay Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. From being a revolutionary front, the MILF is transitioning to become a political party. In his opening remarks, Hon. Sammy Al-Mansour, UBJP …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2014/12/ubjp-is-a-positive-development-in-the-mindanao-peace-process/

FIELD TEAM RELIEVES BARANGAY SIHA; PBCI THANKS DONORS

The local volunteers belonging to the newly-trained and newly-organized Disaster Response Networks (DRNs) have finally managed to deliver relief goods to 278 families in hard-to-reach Barangay Siha, in the Municipality of Borongan, Eastern Samar. In order to transport their cargo of rice-cooking kettles and foodstuffs to the remote barangay, the team risked their lives by fording the Lo-om river, which was swollen by heavy …

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Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2014/12/field-team-relieves-barangay-siha-pbci-thanks-donors/

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.