Metro Manila, Philippines.  URI Peacemakers’ Circle CC celebrates one year of building trust, step by step, in a Muslim-Christian community, with water project, seminars, and deep spiritual sharing.

The Peacemakers’ Circle will be celebrating one year of helping to build bridges of friendship among Muslims and Christians in a grassroots community in Phase 12 of Caloocan City, Metro Manila. This community is regarded by many to be the “drug capital” of Caloocan, and crime rate is high in that area. It has around 5,000 residents and about 20 percent of the population is Muslim; most of them are from the Maranao tribe of Mindanao (the southern region of the country) whose families migrated north to Metro Manila to escape the hardships of life in the conflict-ridden south.

In recognition of the need to help the growing number of migrant Muslims live peacefully side-by-side with Christians in Metro Manila, the Peacemakers’ Circle decided in October last year to engage in building relationships between Muslims and Christians - in a community where the conditions seemed conducive. The area of choice was in Caloocan City. Although at first a sense of suspicion greeted our presence, the volunteers of the Peacemakers’ Circle, Lee Collano and Marites Africa (Christian), and Alireza Kunting (Muslim) – were gradually able to earn the trust of the members of the community.

Trust-building was a difficult process that took time, commitment, patience and perseverance. Not only was there the need to establish trust between the volunteers of the Peacemakers’ Circle and the members of the community, there was the greater challenge of building trust between the Muslims and the Christians who lived there together. The Christians often perceived Muslims in a negative light, and dealt with them with a sense of wariness and fear. The Muslims were critical of what they perceived to be “immoral” life-styles of the Christians, and tended to avoid them. There was an invisible wall that divided the two groups of people in the community. The problem of poverty that prevailed made the task of relationship-building more challenging. It was in this atmosphere that the Peacemakers’ team of volunteers entered.