It has been almost two years since the Marawi siege when Philippine government forces first began their military assault on the city to root out the Dawlah Islamiya, popularly known as the Maute Group, who believed that promoting their vision of Islam required the use of violence. It took almost five months for the government to defeat the Maute Group and their allies. During the war, many civilians were kidnapped, injured and killed, and thousands were displaced.

Throughout the siege and for the many months that followed, MPI alumni with skills in peacebuilding and conflict transformation responded to those most in need, working to restore just relationships and dealing with those traumatized by the war. Little did they know that many of those with whom they were working or connected were also MPI alumni, that is until 12 March 2019.

On that day, MPI alumni gathered for their first reunion in Northern Mindanao. Twenty peacebuilders, a mix of practitioners and the academe from Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Misamis Oriental and Agusan del Norte, came together at the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao (IPDM), Mindanao State University (MSU) in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte.

Many were surprised at the connections, saying: “Hey, I didn’t know you also attended MPI.” These MPI alumni work together on different peacebuilding issues in that region, especially on issues related to the Marawi siege and the impact it still has on peace and development and the life of the people in Marawi and beyond. Only at this MPI alumni reunion in Iligan did they realize their common roots of knowledge on peacebuilding, conflict transformation or active nonviolence. No wonder that after looking around and seeing so many MPI alumni engaged in Marawi, one alumna said: “It would be good to find out what the relevance of MPI is in Marawi.” This is certainly a research project that MPI could consider.

The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI) has entered into a collaboration agreement through a Memorandum of Understanding between MPI and Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). The MoU states the intention of cooperation for collaboration on mutually beneficial grant opportunities, curriculum development, and activities for the advancement of programming between the two entities.

Canadian Mennonite University is a Christian liberal arts university, rooted in Anabaptist faith traditions in Winnipeg. “CMU has one of the largest and oldest undergraduate programs in peace and conflict studies in the world. Thousands of students have taken courses in peace and conflict studies, and the alumni are active in the field around the world. One of CMU’s strengths currently lies in undergraduate peace and conflict education. CMU is working at extending its learning community. CMU’s journal, Peace Research: Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, works to extend its learning engagement within the academic and scholarly community. In June 2015, CMU launched its new Master of Arts in Peacebuilding and Collaborative Development (MA-PCD). CMU strives to serve the broader community through faculty research, writing and community engagement.”

The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI), is pleased to announce that we will be welcoming eleven scholars to our 2019 Annual Peacebuilding Training through a Non-Degree Faculty Enrichment Grant from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia.

This is the fifth year in a row that MPI has welcomed United Board scholars to its Annual Peacebuilding Training. Recipients for this year’s training hail from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The scholarship allows these educators to participate in all three weeks of the Annual Peacebuilding Training.

As a young practitioner in the field of peacebuilding, I did not think mentorship was a role that I could possibly fill. I thought I only had to focus on gaining new knowledge and skills and applying them. But being part of MPI’s Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program allowed me to see that the understanding and experience you gain is only truly valuable when you are able to share the lessons you learned with others. I was taught that letting others drink from your cup is as important as emptying and filling it again. Through the program, I gained confidence in myself and capacity to mentor other young grassroots peace practitioners, who are themselves untapped mentors in their own communities. The program is both a journey of self-discovery and of multiplying!