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URI’s Executive Director, Rev. Charles Gibbs, has been sending daily posts from Lanao del Norte, Mindanao, where leaders of the URI Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region are meeting. Here are some selections from his journal.
. . . One of the gifts of our time with the Governor of Lanao del Norte in Mindanao is that it is helping to solidify the foundation of a partnership between his office, Pakigdait CC and the URI in this region, especially through the work of the Peacemakers Circle, which will help extend the training they received over two years through the Moral Imagination Peacebuilding Project by leading a series of capacity building trainings here in Lanao del Norte. The first of these trainings will take place this week, with hopes that 100 local leaders will participate.
At the end of the day, we met some of these leaders at a dinner hosted by the governor. Their work includes trauma healing, relief and development. At the dinner, I was privileged to present to representatives of URI’s SEAP Regional Leadership Council – Marites Africa, Amir Farid Isahak, Musa Sanguila and Shakun Vaswani – a certificate of support, which included a monetary gift of over $10,000 to support what we hope will become a model project including trauma healing and capacity building in peacebuilding. It can only help that the governor was present, standing beside Musa Sanguila, at this presentation, witnessing URI’s global community offering its moral and financial support, as well as capacity building expertise, for a better future in Lanao del Norte.
During the dinner, Marites spoke by cell phone with the Ambassador from the Australian Embassy, who has funded some of the work of the Peacebuilders Circle in Manila, and is interested in helping to support interfaith and intra-faith work for peace and development in Lanao del Norte. It seems that he is interested in coming down on Saturday to participate in the forum/training session.
It is a joy, as we turn our eyes toward celebrating URI’s 10th anniversary in 2010, to see this weaving together of grassroots activism with high level connections in government, locally and internationally, all supported by URI’s global network. This is who we are. This is a harbinger of who we are becoming all over the world.
. . . Tuesday marked the beginning of a two-day leadership development workshop, funded by the Bowes Award for SEAP, to strengthen leadership and consolidate a regional leadership council to lead the development of URI in this region. The day was ably facilitated by Marites Africa.
. . . As we moved into the work of these two days, I noticed one tremendously positive reality present in this gathering that should be a model for the rest of URI – the presence of mentors with the new generation of leaders they are mentoring. Sister Sandra is here from Cebu City, Philippines with two young women – Mary Jane and Jai – whom she is guiding into important leadership roles in their Cooperation Circles and in the region. Jessiee is here with Elyse, both from Australia. Shakun and Marites are here from Manila with Sharon, Sarah and Orlan. And I see Indra from Bali, who has recently moved beyond the boundaries of being a young leader, himself, playing something of a mentor’s role for Sam An from Cambodia.
. . . Though we have one more day together tomorrow, I find myself feeling the unimaginable speed with which this week has flown by; and filled with gratitude that old friendships have deepened, new friendships have blossomed and the work of URI in this region has been strengthened and given new energy and vision moving forward. At the same time, and of profound importance, we have stood in solidarity with our sisters and brothers of Pakigdait and Lanao del Norte. I have only to look at the brilliant smiles on our hosts’ faces to understand how important that solidarity is.
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