From conflict to peace

As of March 12, 2003, the total number of families affected by armed conflicts in Mindanao is 41,940, or 228,644 affected persons. These persons live in the government’s 100 evacuation centers in Regions X, XI, XII and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

In a report on the status of disaster operation submitted by the National Operations Office to Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, the total number of families served inside evacuation centers have been 17,284 and, outside evacuation center, 24,096. These translate to 100,623 persons served inside evacuation centers and 124,679 outside evacuation centers.

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After a roundtable discussion among members of women’s non-governmental organizations last week, this columnist had a conversation with Celia Santos of the Community and Family Services International (CFSI) in Mindanao about the social development organization’s efforts to address the psychosocial needs of people uprooted from their communities because of exceptionally difficult circumstances.

She said the current national attention has been focused on the Iraq war, and people seem to have forgotten that the war in Mindanao is raging, and the needs of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) must urgently be addressed.

Celia said some of these IDPs have been experiencing the effects of the armed conflicts between the government military forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for 30 years. In Year 2001, when the government launched its all-out-war against the Muslim rebel forces, internally displaced persons (it appears that the word "evacuees" is no longer the acceptable term) found themselves in the evacuation centers served by CSFI.

Slowly, the IDPs stripped themselves of feelings of hostility and desperation under the kind ministrations of the organization whose objective are 1) to develop enabling conditions that encourage the IDPs’ safe return or settlement, facilitate the process of transition and stabilization, and provide a foundation for peace-building and sustainable development, and 2) "contribute to the existing knowledge base by developing and testing models that will inform approaches to the transition from conflict of peace."

As of January 2003, CSFI personnel, led by its executive director Steven Muncy, government agencies and international institutions, and the IDPs, with funding from the World Bank, engaged in empowerment-focused program components including community organizing, information, peace education, psychosocial care, livelihood assistance start-up, and research.

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CFSI was born at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in Bataan in April, 1981, first as an advocacy body, and, by June of the same year, as a direct service provider. Its creation was a direct response to the felt and observed psychosocial needs of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees as well as local Filipinos. The early effort of Bataan served as a solid foundation for CFSI. Decision-makers were impressed by CFSI’s approach leading to new service opportunities. As such it has been part of the international community’s response to a variety of complex humanitarian emergencies in Southeast Asia as well as a range of return, reintegration, and social development efforts.

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From my conversation with Celia, I could imagine the image-building process that persons displaced by armed conflicts in Mindanao went through. In the evacuation centers consisting of tents by the banks of Liguasan Marsh, people organized themselves into committees of men, women and children, and they began to talk freely about their fears and feelings of loneliness and despair – of being victims of war, of having been driven from their farms, of losing their means of livelihood, of relatives being killed, of children not having education. They also learned to talk about their dreams on a weekly radio program.

In the five communities served by CFSI (Carman and Kabacan in North Cotabato, Pagagawan and Pagalungan in Maguindanao and Pikit, Cotabato), children attended classes, adults learned to sign their names and what they could about fishing, making nets, farming, and borrow money from the Land Bank (dole-outs are unheard of in the evacuation centers), and to have hope for the future.

Among the outstanding features of the CFSI programs was the "Go and See Visits", which had IDPs look at their demolished farms and homes. Celia said that for the visiting groups to go safely on these journeys, arrangements for clearance were made with the military and MILF.

Then, full of hope and cheer, they moved back to their homes. They built houses made from local materials, and began to farm or fish. Slowly, their villages grew into lovely settings, recalled Celia.

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Last February 11, however, the military dropped bombs on the villages, and the MILF retaliated. The "returnees" fled their newly-built houses and farms, and wound up in the care of CFSI again. Farmers brought their carabaos. Young children wore their school uniforms and lugged their school bags. The re-building process has begun again. But, Celia said, because of their previous learning experience, the IDPs now are "better organized, not psychologically helpless, but know what to do".

But will these IDPs be always on the run? Celia expressed hope that more community organizers would come to help them. Having worked as an organizer in Harlem in New York, Africa, and West Timor, Celia knows the smell of poverty. In the conflicted areas, she talked about the places being "so isolated", of literacy being very low, of life being poor.

She thanks the support of the World Bank, Save the Children, Word Vision, Kadtuntaya Foundation, Bangsamoro World Federation and Bangsamoro Development Agency. But more help is needed. Contact Steven Muncy, at telephone 632 510-1046, fax 632 551-25, or e-mail [email protected]. The website is www.cfsi.ph.