Socio-Pastoral Institute

This paper was presented in a Cambridge University last Dec. 2008. The  conference featured case studies from Christian Aid, Islamic Aid and World Jewish Relief to shine a light on multi-faith approach in development work. Below is the case study presented by Christian Aid’s partners SPI and Ummah Fi Salam on building peace communities in Pagadian City, Mindanao, Philippines.

“Building Darusalams or Peace Communities”

By Jose Luis Clemente

Executive Director

Socio-Pastoral Institute

The Night We Dared to Dream

I remember it as if it happened yesterday. It was late 1999 well before 9/11 when the scourge of religious fundamentalism was for most people just a faint thunder on the far away god-forsaken mountains of Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. But for Fr. Luciano Pili, a Socio-Pastoral Institute (SPI) Board member, Arthur Neame of Christian Aid and myself, the writings were clearly on the wall and we wanted to do something proactive to address it.

So we met at the SPI office in Quezon Avenue to dream together on what we can do to harness and activate the power of spirituality to bring development or material, political, spiritual and social blessings to all, especially to those living in the underbelly of society and to peoples of other faiths.

Christian Aid brought to the table its precious wealth of experience in development work as it is involved in bringing practical benefits to the poor in many countries around the world. SPI on the other hand has over 20 years of experience as a training and service institute with a socio-pastoral education program for Catholic Church and non-governmental organization leaders involved in integral social change.

To complete the cast of players, a local partner, Sultan Maguid Maruhom from Pagadian City in Mindanao Island, joined us in this quixotic quest to bring the social blessings of our faith traditions to the poor. We agreed that if this dream project ever sees the light of day, we will put it into the service of the urban poor Muslim settlements in Pagadian City where life was precarious and harsh.

Preparing the Ground

For several days after that, we wrestled with key ideas that act as a scaffold to hold together the variety of interventions, methodologies, sensitivities and approaches of our dream project. An initial bridge we had to cross together was a common appreciation of the term “spirituality” as we were all, first and foremost, peoples of faith.

The discussions were at times heavy but always lively. After a few rounds, we unanimously agreed that for our dream project, spirituality must, in the main, be a commitment to a culture of peace. This is important because our project site is in Mindanao, an island with a resonant history of violence that spans hundreds of years. From state sponsored violence to terrorism to vendetta killings – you name it – it is all there. So spirituality as commitment to peace is a fundamental stake of our dream project.

We also agreed that central to our understanding of spirituality is a commitment to religious and cultural tolerance. This again is in response to the oppositions posed by the cultural milieu. While tolerance is a cornerstone of the teachings of all the faiths present in Mindanao, the entire island reverberates with cynicism and mistrust because of its long history of religious and social conflict. Christians, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples are notoriously suspicious and wary of each other so how do you bring them as one in fellowship? How do you bring them to work together on matters of common and practical concerns?

Equally important is the understanding that spirituality is about commitment to a just economic, political and social order as well as commitment to human rights. While spirituality is about an integral moral life, it must also be about political, economic and social reforms that bring practical benefits to the poor because social mission – the call to work for justice – is a “constitutive” not extra-curricular or optional dimension of our various religions.

If spirituality does not bring concrete benefits to the poor, if they do not feel it as real or something that matters to their situation, if they are not able to bite it between their teeth – then surely it is not authentic spirituality. And if it is false spirituality, without doubt, the poor have every right to abandon it.

After grappling with spirituality, we moved on to explore what we meant by the term “development.” Before proceeding further, we first acknowledged how the spiritual context shapes the identity of the people and how it also influences the systems of power in the community. Hence, the initial framework that development work must become an engagement with the whole lives of the people with whom we work and not just their “material” progress.

The bottom line, however, is that it must be about dealing with the dark issues of poverty and meeting the basic needs of the poor by combating deprivation. This is crucial because poverty is the pervasive face of our target communities. The typical Muslim neighborhood in Pagadian City is filled with about 120 to 200 desolate houses on stilts sunk in a slime of mud and garbage containing plastic bags, broken glass and human sewage. The houses themselves are built with flimsy walls and roofs, battered windows grayed by a combination of sea-spray and mould. A representative house is about 20 square meters small and is occupied by about 16 people from three families who eat only once a day.

There are no opportunities for livelihood aside from small-time fishing and the selling of second hand clothes. To make matters worse, literacy is very low because most Muslim youths drop out of school to look for work to help supplement their family’s earnings. Health care services are almost non-existent and, in any case, unaffordable. Schools are seen as distant and hostile places for many. Fresh water is carried in by hand and is often expensive and unclean. And communities are often clannish and hesitant to engage with strangers, fearful of violent crime and fearful of local security forces that often kill people at random in the guise of “removing criminal elements”.

By some means, we must address this deplorable situation.

As if that was not formidable enough, we also agreed that when we talk about development it must include the promotion of cultural and religious diversity. It is plain that there are social forces – a lot of them hiding behind the veil of “nation building”- that are destroying the rich religious and cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples in Mindanao. The kind of development we want to pursue in our dream project respects and cares for the wealth of cultural differences and in fact makes use of that abounding diversity for the common good.

Lastly, we agreed that development must include helping establish participative and democratic mechanisms and practices. This is of strategic importance if the people are to be architects of their own destiny. It is also an apt response to a situation in which you find a local government that wants to keep participation in the public arena to a minimum, community religious leaders who are used to having their way and tribal leaders with absolute power to do what they please. One way or another, we must find receptive cultural and social spaces where we can plant and nourish the mechanisms and practice of popular participation.

And that in a freeze frame, was how it was on those heady days of 1999.

Sowing the Seeds of Change: The Evolution of the Project

How I want to tell you that everything marched smoothly to success from there but that would be a lie and I fear the Lord will straighten my tongue. In truth, the birthing of our dream project took a mighty long time.

Our first collaboration with Christian Aid actually come in the early part of 2000 when we conducted an interfaith encounter on “Globalization, Fundamentalism and Global Ecumenism as Humanity’s Response” with leaders of the major faiths from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines. Here we aimed to explore what binds us, what we share as human and spiritual beings as well the forces that create mistrust between us and how we can creatively address those. We allowed ourselves to dream of another world, but in doing so we sought to give respect to the variety of traditions present whilst acknowledging our common belief in the transcendent.

In that encounter, we discovered how the forces of globalization and “fundamentalism” (for want of a better word) depend upon and feed upon each other as a binary pair while both claiming that they are universal truths. From there we emerged to dream of communities that are open, learning, transcendent and inclusive in which fear and anger no longer strengthen oppression and grinding poverty.

It was not till late 2001 that we were able to give those insights we picked up from that interfaith encounter a practical and community-based expression among the poor in Pagadian City. For our first few years there, we devoted our energies to enhancing the dynamics of interfaith dialogue in the area. To a great extent, it meant clarifying what interfaith dialogue is and helping prepare the Muslim leaders so that they are able to come to the table with confidence and the capability to speak about the plight of their communities from the prism of their faith.

Alternatively, our other concern in the start-up years in Pagadian was to convince civil society leaders and the Catholic Church that authentic interfaith dialogue leads to collective actions for justice and peace. Interfaith dialogue cannot start and end with fellowship; it must lead to actions that bring practical blessings to all, especially to the poorest of the poor.

This is crucial not only because this is a constitutive dimension of all our faiths but also because we need all the help we can get – from the Catholic Church to media to the local government units – in order to succeed in bringing life-blessings to the poor Muslim communities. So in truth, it was only in the early part of 2003, when interfaith dialogues and collaborations were humming smoothly along that we began our dream project – to build peace communities or Darusalams in Pagadian City.

The Power of Dreams

Before I describe the project “Building Darusalams or Peace Communities” allow me to comment on the long gestation period that marks this project. We started to dream in 1999 and it took almost 4 years before we got this off the ground. Furthermore, it took us many more years before we nailed the methodologies, approaches and strategy of this project flush to the plank. In fact, even now 5 years into our dream project, there are still loose and rough ends that need attending to.

Things did not just fall into place. It was a struggle. Sometimes we encountered troubles so hard that we couldn’t even stand straight. If not for the impetus and energy generated by the first night we got together, we would have quit a long time ago. But the thought of quitting is furthest in our minds because something significant, something transformative happened on the first night that we dared to dream together.

On that first night we found the strength that sustains us through the hardest and roughest grounds. On that night we found the hope that never wavers even in the worst of days when nothing is working and everything is broken. We knew coming off the block that it wasn’t going to be easy but we sincerely believed that in the face of resistance and disappointments, we will not falter and that we will ultimately succeed thanks to the epiphany from that first night.

I remember that first night as if it was yesterday because on that night we discovered the power of dreams. History is jam-packed with instances when we used religion to wage wars on each other. We dreamt instead of harnessing the power of our religious traditions to help build a culture of peace by building communities that are able to meet the political, economic, spiritual and social challenges that restrain it from attaining fullness of life for all.

That is the dream that keeps us – Christian Aid, Socio-Pastoral Institute and Ummah Fi Salam – tightly bound together, filled with energy and in the springtime of mission and hope.

Building Darusalams or Peace Communities

The Vision

The vision of the project is to help build a culture of peace by building grassroots Muslim communities that use their spirituality – vision, meaning, sense of mission, etc. – as orienting principles when they deal with community problems that hinder the realization of fullness of life for all.

Peace communities are, therefore, not communities that meekly accept marginalization and exploitation because they are too weak to stand up for their rights. On the contrary, they are communities that are driven by faith to contribute in the making of a new world marked by justice, equality, integrity of creation and peace.

Although a dimension of the project is about socio-political renewal, it certainly goes beyond that. It is about activating a dimension of life that one cannot approach if one were concerned only with the practicalities of life like say business or governance. It is about developing an identity and a view of one’s self in a relationship with everyone and everything. It is about developing courage to stand up against exploitation in all its incarnations. It is about realizing fullness of life which is not only about material well-being but also about the freedom to choose the meanings, principles and ultimate ends that inform and guide your life.

In other words the project is about spiritual and social renewal or what we refer to as integral transformation.

Mission Partnership: Christian Aid, Socio-Pastoral Institute and Ummah Fi Salam

Christian Aid is the agency that provides the financial support that makes this project possible. But over and beyond the funding, Remy Guillena and Daphne Villanueva of Christian Aid provide invaluable suggestions, critiques and creative inputs to persistently improve this undertaking.

Christian Aid also opens its vast network of local and international partners to both SPI and UFS. Through learning tours, meetings and common actions with Christian Aid partners, SPI and UFS are able to steal a glimpse at a wider horizon of diverse skill sets, organizational tools and practical expertise especially in the field of development .

Socio-Pastoral Institute (SPI) is responsible for the institutional-organizational development of the people’s organization, Ummah Fi Salam. Towards the general task of empowering this people’s organization, SPI helps UFS develop capable, committed and conscious leaders. SPI also helps develop and enhance UFS’ programs and interventions in the communities that lead to people oriented development.

Ummah Fi Salam (UFS) is the local Muslim organization based in Pagadian City. It is responsible for actual work on the ground, above all, on the matters of community organizing and community development.

SPI’s Main Instrument for Change: An Integral Formation-Education Program

The main instrument we use to bring inner as well as outer or structural renewal is our “integral formation-education program” that harnesses the faith resources of Islam and Christianity and the methods of community development.

A principal outcome of this formation program is a core group of conscious, capable and committed leaders who are able to organize and mobilize the local communities for integral social development. (Worth noting is that the project aims not only to develop a core of men leaders but also to develop a core of leaders in the youth and women sectors as well.)

In other words, it is a formation program that equips the leaders with the capability to act together with their communities on behalf of justice and participate in the transformation of the world. Significantly, they do all this driven by a sense of mission for the “redemption” of the human race and all of creation and the liberation of all from every oppressive situation

Strategy for Social Change: Empowering Grassroots Leaders

Our view of social change is that it is a dance with 2 steps.

The first step is helping develop a core of conscious, capable and committed grassroots leaders through an integral formation-education program. The second is providing the logistic, organizational and moral support to these leaders so that they can successfully lead the community to social, economic, cultural and political development according to their values and faith.

Strategy for Diffusion of our Experience in Social Change: Building Models

We are using the Models approach to social change. In this attitude, we focus our long term pastoral accompaniment on empowering the leaders of a few partner grassroots communities to harness the people’s energy and creativity for social change for all.

The strategic thinking, however, is that our involvement with the target communities will provide Christian Aid, Ummah Fi Salam and SPI with key lessons, approaches and methodologies in building Darusalams or peace communities that can be passed on to other groups interested in taking up the same or similar pathways to self-empowerment and integral socio-cultural development.

Our concrete experience in accompanying the communities, therefore, is our concrete contribution to the discourse on faith-based social change. We invite leaders from other non-governmental organizations and people’s organizations to come to our communities to learn what we have done. It is our hope that our experience may inspire them so that they will emulate, improve or possibly replicate our approach.

This is how we spread our innovations to other locales and regions. So although our target communities are small, thanks to our “Models approach” framework, the reverberations of what we do go beyond the confines of the local communities.

Gifts of the Spirit: Fruits of the Kingdom

It has been a blink of an eye and many years since that night we first dared to dream together. Below is a quick look at some of the accomplishments in the 3 areas of interfaith work, community organizing and community development. It is not a comprehensive list of what was achieved over the years; it is only meant to give you a sense of the ripples we have generated in our small pond.

Inter-faith Work

• UFS plays a major leadership role in interfaith dialogue and solidarity work in Pagadian City. It is involved in interfaith advocacy for peace, human rights, governance and the environment. It is consistently approached by the city authorities for advice and for intervention where conflict seems possible.

• UFS has expanded its interfaith involvement to include working with the grassroots in 10 municipalities to help train them to build Inter-faith Councils in those areas.

• UFS is continuously engaged in human rights advocacy through education, dialogues, monitoring, documentation, and paralegal activities. It has drawn in the Interfaith Forum for Solidarity and Peace to get involved in the larger effort to promote human rights for the Muslims, such as in the case of the Badjaos, the Fisher folks’ rights, as well as, in relation to proposed mining ventures around the province.

• Muslim community leaders meet regularly for faith life reflections. In these sessions, verses from the Qu’ran are read and meditated upon based on one’s concrete experience and situation in life. This contributes to a deeper understanding of the social dimension of faith and awakens a deep sense of responsibility for others.

• UFS is a key member of the Silsilah Movement in Pagadian City. Silsilah is an interfaith movement that focuses on the spiritual and self-transformational aspects of inter-faith dialogue. Individuals and groups that shy away from the confrontational types of involvements (e.g. justice work) are invited to join the Silsilah Movement.

• The Consortium of BangsaMoro Civil Society (CBCS) is a consortium of more than 120 Muslim organizations around Mindanao. Through SPI-Christian Aid’s interventions we were able to influence them to concentrate on interfaith dialogue. As a result, they are now promoting interfaith dialogues in their respective areas by conducting workshops on interfaith and how to organize interfaith councils.

• The Interfaith Council is instrumental in putting up a mechanism for Civil Society groups and Government representatives to regularly meet and discuss the peace and order issues in Pagadian City.

• The majority of local ulamas (Muslim religious leaders) support us for what we are and for what we stand for. They manifest their backing by participating in our campaigns and activities or by attending our training.

• Some key members of the UFS’s core group and some of our community leaders are local ulamas.

Community Organizing

• Through effective negotiation with the local government, UFS succeeded in securing lots for some 320 urban poor Muslim and Christian families in the Darusalam and Sta. Lucia areas. We were also able to secure an additional funding of PhP 23 million for the development of the area from the City Government. This is an example of a successful Christian-Muslim advocacy waged by ordinary grassroots people with the full support of the Interfaith Forum for Solidarity and Peace.

• We found that 800 fisherfolk families in the Bay have no one to turn to for support in their struggle to stop the passage of a bill that will declare an area called Puting Balas (White Sand) – their only remaining fishing ground for miles – a fish sanctuary. If passed as a law, this will mean loss of livelihood for the small fisherfolks. We organized the fisherfolks for signature campaigns, sit-ins, rallies and mass education drives that stopped this bill dead on its track. UFS is currently making a video that documents the success of the fisherfolks in this issue. We hope that this video will showcase the importance of community organizing as a tool to uphold the interest of the poor.

• A community based participatory action research was undertaken to determine the socio-political-economic situation of our target communities. The data generated by the research is the basis and guide for community development plans which were made by the local residents themselves to address the key problematics in their areas.

• UFS was very supportive of the peace talks between the government and the secessionist Muslim group, Muslim Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). UFS campaigned for the peace talks in the region through mass actions and education drives that include the use of both radio and print.

• A core group of leaders from UFS was taken by SPI on a learning tour around Negros Island to immerse in various ways of dealing with poverty and governance issues. There they were exposed to micro-finance and enterprise building projects, alternative learning systems, savings schemes and local governance initiatives. From the knowledge and insights generated from this tour, UFS and SPI started the adult literacy course and micro-finance in its communities.

• UFS continues to hold regular and special community level meetings for the purpose of consciousness building and also for participatory development planning. These community level meetings are undertaken regularly on a once a month basis.

• We produced a video to assist in the campaign on mining. What separates this video from the many others made on this issue is that it is from the perspective of religious leaders (Catholic Bishop, Muslim Sheik and Subanon leader) and their spiritual traditions. This video is currently being used by many anti-mining groups in their education campaigns to raise awareness about mining.

• We are currently organizing neighborhood associations in our communities. This is to provide the communities with a legitimate mechanism for participatory governance on the community level. The plan is that the officials of the neighborhood associations can regularly sit down and work with the local barangay (this is the smallest political unit in the Philippines) to address the socio-eco-political issues faced by the communities.

Community Development

• Through SPI-Christian Aid, we helped rebuild over 100 houses that were ravaged by fire in the community of Leon Kilat. This was a massive undertaking that spanned several months. Aside from the houses, we also built foot bridges and toilets for the community. In the same vein, we also assisted the 48 families who chose to move to a relocation site in Kawit build foot bridges and a common toilet.

• A concrete mosque was built in one of the communities, the funding of which (PhP 1.5 million) was negotiated by leaders of UFS, led by Ustadz Basher Cader with the Southeast Asia Foundation, Inc., a Muslim NGO funded by Middle East organizations.

• We are giving adult literacy classes to 3 communities. There are currently 52 participants ranging from young teenagers to middle aged mothers. The class is run by Sr. Agnes Suarin of SPI, ably supported by 3 Muslim women volunteers from the grassroots communities.

• As part of its community development effort, UFS is conducting value formation for Muslim Children in two of its communities, in Lion Kilat and in Darusalam. The sessions are conducted by two Ustadzs (religious teachers) who have volunteered their time and talent. The buildings and chairs for these weekend classes were provided by the communities as their counterparts while SPI and UFS provide the token honoraria to the teachers of these classes.

• SPI-UFS in coordination with other NGOs regularly conduct Basic Health Trainings to grassroots women from our target communities. The training is focused on prevention but it also equips the women with the capacity to deal with common childhood diseases using herbal medicine and accupressure.

• UFS is involved in an education and organizing campaign to strengthen human rights in 10 municipalities in the province of Zamboanga.

• With regards to vendetta killings, UFS has successfully negotiated the termination of some of these blood feuds. This succeeded because UFS has credibility among the local Muslim communities, an admirable standing born from years of authentic service to the poor.

• The Feeding Program for children is an integral part of the training of women leaders who are our second liners in the community. It is meant to give them experience in serving the community and an opportunity for the emerging women leaders to be recognized for their service. We are currently serving 200 children per community.

• We are regularly implementing “operation Linis” or neighborhood clean-up campaigns. It involves educating the emerging women and men leaders or second liners in the communities about the importance of cleanliness. The men and women second liners then go on a house to house campaign to educate others and moblize them for regular collective clean-up drives.

• We started a pilot project to promote container gardening in the communities. This is an effort to supplement the people’s diet with nutritious home grown vegetables. In the context where most families eat only once a day, we see this as an important hedge against malnutrition and starvation.

• We just started a micro-finance project with 2 agar-agar (seaweed farming) cooperatives in two of our target communities. This was undertaken to augment the income of small fisherfolks who could hardly earn 2 dollars a day as most of them do not even own boats or fishing gears.

A Harvest of Insights

When I take the many years of experience in building peace communities and hold it up to the light, I see important things we did that facilitated graceful social transformation. Here’s a short list of what I consider as fulcrum points that tip the social pendulum in favor of success in establishing a culture of peace within a multicultural, multi-religious and poverty-stricken setting.

1. Interfaith Dialogue is vital

• Not only to create a space for bringing together the various religious traditions to learn about each other’s theological beliefs and practices but also to create a mechanism where the Inter-faith councils and the grassroots communities can work with one another for the common good.

• Interfaith councils and faith-based groups must address not only religious but also community concerns.

• It is important for religious leaders to work with civil society activists or social-change agents. This encounter enriches both the religious and civil society groups.

2. We must help educate grassroots religious leaders about social issues and build their capacity to address the problems of their communities

• People run to their community religious leaders for assistance not only on spiritual matters but on almost all issues that affect the communities. We must, therefore, empower grassroots religious leaders so that they can help the communities deal with the various economic, ecological and political problems that they face.

• Value formation and capacity building programs that target grassroots leaders are crucial to incessantly update their skills, attitudes and knowledge so that they can be a force for social change in their locales.

• We must develop mechanisms (learning tours, exchange programs, meetings, common trainings, joint activities, etc) for various community leaders to meet each other, interact and learn from each other’s experiences.

3. To counter the isolationism and suspicion of the depressed and marginalized communities with regard to societal institutions that can address their situation, we must build links between the community and the police, barangay officials, military, media, church, etc. More importantly, by engaging these institutions from a position of strength, the communities – by exerting constant pressure – are able to change the policies and structures of these institutions that cause injustice.

4. We must reform local government starting with the barangays. It is important to transform the barangays because they are the crucial governing institutions closest to the people with the necessary human and material resources to truly make a difference in the lives of the poor. We must do what we can to transform the state, starting with the barangays, so that is becomes as it is meant to be – an instrument to promote human dignity, protect human rights, and build the common good.

The Human Spirit: Where Islam and Christianity Meet

And so I come to the conclusion of this narrative. I want to end on a personal note with a definitive yet concise statement about what walking with the urban poor Muslims means to me. The smell of revelation is in the air but I strain and struggle to find the right words. I feel like a child who cautiously builds castles in the sand, obsessed with perfection yet fully aware that the coming tide will take everything anyway.

So here it goes: It is with the urban poor Muslims that I discovered the transformative force of the human spirit which strives – no matter what the odds – to make things better for oneself and others. In contrast, I live where the sun and wind are kind so I marvel at how the Muslims diligently push back the walls of finitude and limitations that strangle and confine the possibilities of their existence. They live in a world that is a cesspool of inequity and oppression yet they take all of that unflinchingly and deal with it with imagination and creativity. Through biblical fire and flood, they persevere, walking down that long nameless road with only their faith to sustain them.

It is an honor and a privilege to be part of this undertaking which has given me more than I gave or deserve. Through the poor’s firm and persevering determination, I am refreshed in my commitment to the common good or the good of all. To my Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters who are part of this inspiring story which is yet unfinished and is still unfolding, I thank you with the same honesty and passion I draw each and every breath.

Pinoy Travelers in London

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