WOMEN EMPOWERMENT. Vrinda Dar, Relief International country director, speaks during her visit to Cotabato City on Tuesday (Oct. 3, 2023). She met with city officials before the unveiling of the women's peace marker installed at the City Hall grounds and later in the day inaugurated a livelihood for peace project in the city. (Photo courtesy of Relief International)
COTABATO CITY – An international NGO working in Mindanao has partnered with the city government here to build capacities and mobilize community women as peacebuilders.
“This is in support of the efforts of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to sustain the peace dividends in the region,” the Relief International, a non-profit organization working with vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities to deliver life-saving support, said in a statement Wednesday.
Vrinda Dar, Relief International Philippines country director, and Abdulwahab Midtimbang, Cotabato City administrator, unveiled on Tuesday afternoon the women's peace marker at the City Hall grounds here.
Accompanying the marker was the message, “Ina, linawag ka sa walay; Babay, tyakap ka sa kalilintad” (Mothers, we are the light in our homes; Women, we are nurturers of peace).
“This symbolizes the heroic efforts of women in the BARMM to preserve the gains of the peace agreement and nurture peace at the community level,” Dar said.
Relief International, she added, is committed to doing the “Bayanihan” with the Bangsamoro to achieve the fullest well-being of its people and transform fragile settings into communities of peace.
Cotabato City Mayor Mohammad Ali Matabalao, in a separate statement, acknowledged the importance of the role of women in peacebuilding.
Women's capacity to promote peace in the community needs everybody’s support, he added.
“Mothers are truly leaders, speakers of the house and keepers of our values,” Matabalao said.
Relief International, in partnership with the Balay Mindanaw Foundation, is implementing a peacebuilding project in eight municipalities in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Special Geographic Areas called the “Women Engaged in Responsive Solutions to Conflicts and Violence in Mindanao (WE RESOLVE).”
The project, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO), intends to build communities of peace in these areas, which are considered fragile settings because of recurring armed conflicts.
Jules Benitez, communication coordinator for Relief International, said since 2020, they and GFFO have supported 90 peace communities in BARMM.
Currently, the WE RESOLVE project is implementing 40 livelihoods for peace projects and another 40 peace initiative projects in these areas.
About 6,000 community women are benefiting from the project.
Relief International is also supporting coronavirus disease 2019 response and routine immunization to protect the most vulnerable children in the BARMM. (PNA)
