The Peacemakers: Christians turn Moro rebels’ kids into peaceniks

Climate change

Living in harmony with the earth in the era of climate change may be a subject that sounds arcane, but the teachers are doing a great job of illustrating this with concrete examples: planting trees, avoiding using plastic and aerosols, and promoting cleanliness.

That’s what kindergarten children in Japan are being taught—segregating garbage, conserving water, cleaning classrooms—elementary lessons in civics that drive home the virtue of discipline in one of the world’s leading economic powerhouses.

In 2013, UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), in partnership with the charity group Community and Family Services International, began a program not only to encourage children in five school communities, including Mother Poblacion, to increase elementary school attendance and completion but also implement disaster risk reduction programs to mitigate the effects of flooding and storms, as well as civil conflicts.

Even in Cotabato City, 75 percent of the total land area is marshy. Children have to go through rivers and marshes to get to their schools. Because it is below sea level, a slight rain triggers flooding, preventing tiny grade school pupils to attend classes.

There are periodic civil conflicts as well, prompting mass movements and evacuations.

Low attendance

The city has the lowest elementary school attendance in Central Mindanao—48.37 percent of around 3,000 children of school age, according to Concepcion Ferrer-Balawag, the education department’s assistant district superintendent.

“The cohort rate is 79.25 percent,” she said. “This means that of 100 students who entered elementary school, 79.25 percent completed the course.”

The department is still trying to track down the large number of out-of-school children in the city.

“These are displaced children 10 to 15 years ago. They still are not living normal lives because of armed conflicts,” Balawag said.

“They were not educated, many only up to Grade 3. When they reached the age of puberty, they got married. The result is poverty and injustice. They are deprived of basic normal services. Because of the war, there is little development, particularly in Mindanao.”

She said because the government could not rise to the challenge, the department was partnering with nongovernment and international organizations to try and meet the requirements of educating the young. “We have limited resources,” she said.

Best solution

“Education is the best solution to the Muslim problem,” said Balawag. “The reason why poverty and conflict have persisted this long is the lack of basic services. There is supposed to be one elementary school and one high school in every barangay. This is not the case.”

There’s also a need to educate the non-Muslims, said the 54-year-old, a Catholic from Pangasinan province who married a Muslim, embraced her husband’s religion and studied Islam.

“Religion has nothing to do with the Muslim problem. For me, this is the true religion,” said Balawag.

“It is difficult to gain the acceptance of non-Muslims,” she said. “It is necessary to learn about the history of Bangsamoro because it is the history of the Filipino people.”