CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Balay Mindanaw hosted the Circle of Laureates of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) Triennial Awards during their 3-day Learning Visit to the City of Golden Friendship.
The Circle of Laureates is composed of champions and finalists of the RAFI Triennial Awards. This prestigious award was initiated by the Cebu-based foundation in 1996 to recognize the valuable contribution of individuals and institutions to social development. Balay Mindanaw was a finalist in the category Award for Outstanding Institution of the 6th RAFI Triennial Awards.
“Thank you very much, Balay Mindanaw. We learned a lot and your work are truly inspiring. We are very inspired. We hope we can visit your other program or project areas to all the more inspire our laureates,” said Elisabeth Baumgart, program officer of the RAFI Triennial Awards.
Balay Mindanaw oriented the laureates about its work, programs and projects which are all centered on the barangay, the locus and focus of its work. After a brief sharing conducted in the Peace Room of the Balay Mindanaw Peace Center, the laureates visited two of Balay Mindanaw’s partner barangays: Macasandig and Gusa.
On their second day, the laureates visited the Maramag, Bukidnon site of the Agri-Aqua Development Coalition-Mindanao (AADC), a people’s organization that was first organized as a political coalition in 1994 to continue the work of the Congress for People’s Agrarian Reform, the broadest coalition of peasant groups lobbying for the implementation of the agrarian reform law in the 1980s.
On their third and final day, the laureates were able to share their programs and projects to some of Balay Mindanaw’s partner communities and institutions during the 6th Leaders of Change Forum held at the Southeast Asia Rural Social Leadership Institute (SEARSOLIN) of the Xavier University.
The forum became a venue for the start of new partnerships and/or engagement between some of Balay Mindanaw’s partner barangays with the other organizations that are part of the RAFI Circle of Laureates.
Most notable of this possible new partnership and/or engagement is between Barangay Gusa and Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI) based in Bacolod City. AIDFI is the award-winning NGO famous for providing clean, affordable water in many upland communities in Negros, Philippines and across Asia through its hydraulic ram pump technology.
There forum also opened the possibility for a partnership between Balay Mindanaw and AIDF.
Balay Mindanaw’s skyhydrant, acquired through the generosity of SkyJuice Foundation of Australia and the Disaster Aid International, and AIDFI’s ram pump are perfect complement for each other.
Even RAFI, through Executive Director Evelyn Nacario Castro, expressed an open invitation to Balay Mindanaw to conduct trainings and orientations for BDPs and BDRRMPs in Cebu City.
Another possible partnership, this time on peace and development, is between Balay Mindanaw and Kadtabanga Foundation for Peace and Development Advocates, Inc. (KFPDAI), which was founded 15 years ago by former Moro rebels-turned-peacebuilders, especially in the Maguindanao areas.
While the laureates admitted their 3-day stay in Cagayan de Oro was very short, it was “very inspiring and eye-opening.” (Bong D. Fabe)