Country folks begin to build 'dream peace communities'

NAGA CITY (OPAPP/NOV.2, 06) – Farmers and students in Southern Luzon as well as urban poor and church leaders in the Bicol region are beginning to build their own “dream peace communities” facilitated by a series of nationwide training-seminars spearheaded by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The Community Peace Encounter (COPE) seminar gathered key leaders and members in conflict-affected communities to facilitate their discovery and appreciation of positive moments and small successes in peaceful times in their respective communities.

The seminar also conducted a visioning of a secured future free from violent conflicts and reaping of the fruits of a just and lasting peace, as well as their realization of the value of supporting community-based peace mechanisms, structures, and processes.

Last week, representatives of two peasant groups, a student youth group, and a Sangguniang Kabataan federation based in Quezon province participated in a Trainers’ Training on Community Peace Encounters in Naga City, together with representatives from urban poor and diocesan groups based in Sorsogon province.

Earlier, village officials and tribal leaders from Mt. Province and Kalinga in the Cordillera region participated in the first leg of the Trainers’ Training on Community Peace Encounters held at the Mountain Lodge in Baguio City.

Elvira Asuan of the Manila-based Philippine Normal University, the service provider for both Naga and Baguio trainers’ training, disclosed the analogy of geese in flight or migration in relation to building a dream peace community.

Asuan explained that as each goose flaps its wings, it creates an immediate uplift for the bird behind it, and by flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71 percent greater flying range than one bird flying alone.

“People who share a common direction and sense of where they are going gets to the place quicker and easier because they are traveling on the strength of one another,” Asuan said at the Regent Hotel for the Naga leg of the trainers’ training on the COPE program.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone quickly, then gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front, Asuan explained.

“If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation with those who are ahead of where we want to go and be willing to accept their help as well as give our assistance to others,” Asuan said.

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position, Asuan said. “It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership in the team or in the community,” Asuan added.

She said the geese in formation also honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. “We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging, and not something else,” Asuan said, pertaining to the relations among leaders and members in a team or community.

Further, she stressed that when a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese immediately drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. These two geese stay with the sick or wounded goose until it is able to fly again, or dies.

Then the two geese launch out on their own, with another formation, or they catch up with their flock. “If we have as much sense as geese do, we too will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are stronger,” Asuan stressed.

The Trainers’ Training on Community Peace Encounters in Baguio and Naga is a project of OPAPP under the Government of the Philippines-United Nations Development Programme (GoP-UNDP) Conflict Prevention and Peace Building (CPPB) Program. (OPAPP)