The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI) has entered into a collaboration agreement through a Memorandum of Understanding between MPI and Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). The MoU states the intention of cooperation for collaboration on mutually beneficial grant opportunities, curriculum development, and activities for the advancement of programming between the two entities.

Canadian Mennonite University is a Christian liberal arts university, rooted in Anabaptist faith traditions in Winnipeg. “CMU has one of the largest and oldest undergraduate programs in peace and conflict studies in the world. Thousands of students have taken courses in peace and conflict studies, and the alumni are active in the field around the world. One of CMU’s strengths currently lies in undergraduate peace and conflict education. CMU is working at extending its learning community. CMU’s journal, Peace Research: Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, works to extend its learning engagement within the academic and scholarly community. In June 2015, CMU launched its new Master of Arts in Peacebuilding and Collaborative Development (MA-PCD). CMU strives to serve the broader community through faculty research, writing and community engagement.”

As a young practitioner in the field of peacebuilding, I did not think mentorship was a role that I could possibly fill. I thought I only had to focus on gaining new knowledge and skills and applying them. But being part of MPI’s Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program allowed me to see that the understanding and experience you gain is only truly valuable when you are able to share the lessons you learned with others. I was taught that letting others drink from your cup is as important as emptying and filling it again. Through the program, I gained confidence in myself and capacity to mentor other young grassroots peace practitioners, who are themselves untapped mentors in their own communities. The program is both a journey of self-discovery and of multiplying!

In early December 2018, the first batch of mentors from the Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program of MPI, a group comprised entirely of people from Mindanao, met at Davao Eagle Ridge Resort for a midterm workshop. For three days, the mentors reflected on their six-months mentoring experience since the initial workshop held after MPI’s 2018 Annual Peacebuilding Training. They shared their stories and elaborated on the challenges and highlights in working with their mentees and the circumstances in which they work.

“Knowledge needs to be shared”

The Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI) began a new and innovative Grassroots Peacebuilding Mentors Training Program with a workshop that on the first day emphasized the need for knowledge to be shared. Participants recognized that when sharing their skills and what they are good at, that knowledge is multiplied. Mentoring, while usually voluntary and unpaid, can bring about mutual learning experiences, as we support one another.

MPI, along with the workshop’s co-facilitators, Gladston “Ashok” and Florina Xavier, developed and designed the program with the objective that grassroots peacebuilders who are working in the field would be able to enhance their mentoring ability. This will, in turn, strengthen the peacebuilding skills of their co-workers in their organizations and partners in the communities where they work.