NEWS/UPDATES: 2 batches of peace course already completed

A new pool of 72 barangay leaders and community-based development workers participated in Balay Mindanaw’s recently concluded Operation Peace Course (OP KORS for short), a two-week training program.

Teresita Torreon, Barangay Secretary of Barangay Lunotan, asked herself before the start of the training: “Ngano kami pa? Ug kamo na lang diay ang maglihok sa barangay kay kamo man ang nakamao?” She later realized how crucial their roles are as leaders in their community.

“Dako man diay kini og ikatampo sa akong personal nga kinabuhi ngadto sa komunidad,” commented Demar Saluma, who has no involvement whatsoever in the barangay then until his Barangay Captain (Barangay Kalagunoy) pushed him to join and undergo the training. He realized, after the module on self-transformation, that he has a significant contribution in the development of the community, most especially if he has to transform himself from his old way of life.

The first batch of participants (37 of them) came from the Misamis Oriental Eastern Towns of Lagonglong, Sugbongcogon and Kinoguitan, covering 20 barangays. This was conducted from March 20 to April 1, 2006. The second batch of 35 came from 23 barangays of Gingoog City. This was conducted from April 17 to 29, 2006.

Hosted by the Balay Mindanaw Peace Center, these two batches were facilitated and managed by the training team of Balay Mindanaw Group of NGOs in the hope to increase the core pool of trained and committed community-based leaders and NGO workers.

Designed with four major modules, the peace course provides a venue for learning and opportunity of experiences. These modules include participatory workshops and interactive discussions in (1) self-transformation, (2) conflict transformation, and (3) basic peace-building skills like mediation, dialogue, communication, negotiations and reconciliation.


Participants from the municipality of Kinoguitan get serious in their planning workshop.

More challenging, according to Lovella Pagaran, a community development worker in six barangays in Gingoog City, is the process of reconciliation, she being a victim of injustice at one point in her life.

The fourth module provided the participants the opportunity to design their barangay peace building plan based on their learnings and based on the current barangay development program. The challenge was not only how to integrate their peace plans but how to compliment their development plans in order to make peace sustainable in their community.

Roger Comprado and other barangay captains who see their leadership role in the community with great magnitude, learned more about their true selves for the first time through this training, including their limitations and strengths. They realized they can do more for their community because of this newly found understanding, deeper and better than the old ones they knew and practiced for a long time.

Two weeks was long enough to be away from their families, work and community, but most of them thought that if they are not open to opportunities like this (and this training has taught them to understand deeper of themselves, others, their situations and issues confronting them), they cannot help their community to at least start the peace they are yearning for.

OP KORS! Operation Peace Course

“Op Kors!” is coined from the English expression, “of course,” which means or “yes,” “agreed,” “okay.” This was adapted by Balay Mindanaw as an acronym for “Operation Peace Course.”

The word “operation” often used to connote a military campaign or a surgical procedure, but was used here instead to relate a series of peace trainings or courses which Balay Mindanaw hopes to share to its partner barangays and partner NGOs.


	Graduates of Gingoog City cheer up with the OP KORS sign.

Balay Mindanaw organized the first peace course in 2005. A total of 53 barangay leaders and NGO workers graduated from the course. The first operation peace course then was a four-week program, including a week-long exposure in the barangay consultations on the GRP-RPMM Peace Process.

This peace course is part of the peace education component of the Peace Building Program of Balay Mindanaw.

Subsidized by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and funded largely by MISERIOR, this undertaking is in partnership with the Catholic Relief Service (CRS). As an accompanying partner of BMFI since the designing of the Peace Program, CRS has been providing Balay Mindanaw the technical support in terms of facilitation, flow and delivery of topics, processing and training management.

Helping Build Empowered and Sustainable Communities in Mindanao. Helping Build Peace.