Category: SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION
Stories and ideas about being in harmony and at peace with the Creator.
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.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/08/our-journey-with-edsal-a-meranaw-peacebuilding-partner-continues-through-social-enterprise/
28-30 July 2021. It’s energizing to reconnect with Rolivel Oliveros Elusfa and his team. He was my colleague in civilian ceasefire monitoring from 2006 to 2012 as part of a peacebuilding network. A few months ago, he contacted me and shared his passion to do peacebuilding and development among the Mandaya Indigenous communities. Now, we’re exploring a wider and deeper view of peacebuilding—where building peace is understood as encompassing a holistic and inclusive process of transformation: spiritual-ethical transformation, psycho-social transformation, socio-political transformation, and economic-ecological transformation.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/07/peace-journalist-brews-development-partnership-between-mandaya-tribe-and-pbci-cfp-team/
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/06/commemoration-celebration-and-reflection-a-spiritual-journey-with-the-bagobo-tagabawa/
The Kapeyapaan Farmers Association (KFA) founding leaders in Barangay Alegre are on their 5th month of training. The participants had their coffee cupping and tasting last 16-17 of June 2021 to wrap up their Coffee Quality training. They also had strategic planning for building their association.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/06/kfa-founding-leaders-experience-basic-coffee-cupping-and-tasting/
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.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/05/peace-and-reconciliation-through-inclusive-development-and-social-entrepreneurship/
The Binaton Bagobo Tagabawa Farmers Livelihood Association (BBTAFLA) in Barangay Binaton, Digos City committed themselves to look at long-term Inclusive Development Program based on their indigenous identity. This sense of ‘who they are’ would determine the production and marketing of their farm products—such as vegetables, coffee, flowers, and handcrafts. They will also share with outsiders their Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices through stories, arts, and native products. In coordination with the government, civil society, and business sectors, they will open their community as a learning center for Indigenous cultural understanding, peacebuilding, and reconciliatory initiatives.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/05/bagobo-tagabawa-farmers-look-at-development-through-their-indigenous-identity/
Our Inclusive Development partnership with the Obo Manobo tribe, together with Energy Development Corporation (EDC), is on its second month of this year’s training. This month’s objectives are: (a) to listen from the elders of the Manobo Apao Descendants Ancestral Domain of Mt. Apo (MADADMA) on the characteristics and structures of the Obo Manobo indigenous leadership; (b) to identify the impact of Christianity in their culture, especially on leadership; (c) to discuss the three basic ways of post-harvest coffee processing; (d) and, to facilitate a hands-on experience on quality seedling propagation.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/04/obo-manobo-community-describes-leadership-qualities-of-a-datu/
May we truly experience being healed as one country of many first nations, religions, ideologies, languages and cultures in this archipelago. May we all learn to listen to each other twice as much as we utter our words. May we learn to harmonize our differences like the different instruments and sounds in an orchestra, like the different colours in a mosaic, like the different parts of a healthy body.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/04/a-cry-for-healing-praying-for-competent-leaders-in-our-country/
Together with the Corporate Social Responsibility Department of Energy Development Corporation (EDC), the PeaceBuilders Community Inc. and Coffee for Peace Inclusive Development (PBCI-CFP IncluDev) Team established a three-year program for the Obo Manobo in Kidapawan City. This year’s goal is to strengthen the coffee farming group in the Manobo Apao Descendants Ancestral Domain of Mt. Apo (MADADMA) community and develop their coffee farm management capacity.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/03/peace-and-coffee-inclusive-development-and-partnership-with-the-obo-manobo/
With compliance to public health and safety protocols, Kapeyapaan Farmers Association (KFA) in Alegre, Bansalan started their 3rd month of training last 15-16 March 2021 and the KFA in Binaton, Digos City started their 2nd month last 18-19 March 2021.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/03/kapeyapaan-farmers-association-training-in-bansalan-and-digos-city/
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.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://peacebuilderscommunity.org/2021/03/power-peace-and-kinship-indigenous-leaders-share-their-dreams/
