Project Amihan Pushes for Peacebuilding thru Friendship in Digital Storytelling Workshop

By Andrea Ross Sedero


“Unite for peace. Start with friendship.”

As part of its advocacy to leverage friendship as a tool for peace, Project Amihan: Young Peace Weavers was launched with a three-day Digital Storytelling Workshop, the first in a series of initiatives, aimed at sharing stories of friendship to promote cultural understanding and reduce stereotypes particularly in Iligan, Lanao del Norte, and Lanao del Sur.

Set to last from August 24 to 26 at Alan Sr. Residences in Iligan City, the twenty participants chosen to join were from different ethnic and religious backgrounds across Iligan City and the Lanao Provinces. Prior to their selection, participants had been screened in pairs with a friend of a different background through a joint online application.

“Ang goal talaga namin is through training and digital storytelling, mapopromote na friendship is a tool for peace. Kahit iba’t iba man ang pinanggalingan natin, iba’t iba ang mga background natin, nagkakaintindihan pa rin tayo,” Project Leader Lou Ellen Antonio emphasized in her welcoming remarks.


One of the participants, Hasanah Basher, shared how she found Amihan’s concept of peacebuilding through friendship and digital storytelling refreshing and new, which piqued her interest in applying to join the workshop. Her involvement in peacebuilding had begun during her college years in Davao, but her focus shifted when she moved to Cagayan de Oro in 2022 for work, temporarily distancing her from peacebuilding activities. After returning to Marawi, she wanted to re-engage with peacebuilding efforts and saw the workshop as that opportunity.


Basher, who is partly Maranao and Ilocano and a Muslim, had applied alongside her friend, Dañiela Liparanon, a Higaonon and Catholic whom she met through her work in CDO. “Kaya si Dan ‘yung napili kong pair dito sa workshop is because ‘yung kinukuha kasi nila are two friends from different backgrounds so ako Maranao, Muslim, and Dan is Higaonon, Catholic. Doon palang napaka [drastic] na ng differences namin but we became friends kasi we have the same values and passion. She’s also a peace advocate, and she values inclusivity,” she highlighted in an interview.

Another one of the participants, Shierlmahal Sahibul, a fellow CASS Arachnid at Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT), expressed her appreciation for the Amihan: Young Peace Weavers initiative, noting that as a peace advocate, she valued the opportunity to attend workshops that enhance her knowledge of conflict resolution.

Sahibul, who is a Tausug and Muslim, was joined together with her friend Zailla Althea Alarde, a Bisaya and Christian, whom she met through CASS’ women’s basketball team. Both of them are also graduating Psychology students. “I thought of Zailla right away [since] same mi na progressive og way of stance when it comes to politics and social issues. Kaya, siya agad ang gitap ko at that moment [for applications],” she briefly shared in an interview.


Culture of Peace

The first day consisted of engaging and interactive activities, an introduction of the participants by pairs, and a session entitled, ‘Culture of Peace: Understanding Differences and Creating Harmony’ by Prof. Sittie Noffaisah Pasandalan, an academic and peace advocate, currently serving as an Associate Professor and the Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sciences at MSU-IIT.


She emphasized on the United Nations’ definition of Culture of Peace about ‘rejecting violence and preventing conflicts by tackling their root causes’ and ‘solving problems through dialogue and negotiation’. “If we have a conflict, you believe in one thing and I believe in another, we do not see eye to eye; instead of just looking at what makes us different, we go down to the cause of this. ‘Why is it that I see this as blue, and you see it as red?’ It is only when we address the root causes that we are able to eliminate as many conflicts and disagreements [as possible],” she pointed out.


Prof. Pasandalan shared UNESCO’s Preamble, ‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed’, highlighting that if something can be imagined, it is possible to achieve. Just as people conceived and prepared for war, we can also envision and plan for peace. She underscored that the same process of thought can be applied to attain peace by determining the necessary actions and strategies to achieve it as ‘ideas shape feeling and action, how we live and how we relate’.


In building a culture of peace, there are eight action areas to work on, she noted one that is highly aligned to Project Amihan’s advocacy, ‘Advance Understanding, Tolerance, and Solidarity’. “Overcome enemy images with understanding, tolerance, and solidarity. Instead of automatically raising your guard, building your walls, because the other person appears to be an enemy. We have to understand why the other person is like that,” she asserted. “There is a need for a change in thinking about concepts and values because it is the necessary first step to solve our problems today. A change in mindset,” she added.


Moreover, Prof. Pasandalan explored a range of concepts related to peace, including positive peace, inner peace, and Scott Kaufman’s sailboat metaphor. She discussed the power of positive language, referencing Masaru Emoto’s experiment on water crystals, and examined transactional and structural relationships, as well as the bridging leadership framework. She also introduced the concept of positions and interests through the story of ‘The Chefs and the Orange’ illustrating the dilemma faced by two chefs who each needed an orange for different recipes when only one orange remained.


She explained, “Positions are how you expect your needs to be met, or the completions needed to meet your needs. There is also interest. In their position [the chefs], they are only talking about splitting the orange in half—one half for you, one half for me. But if they talked about their interests, things would be different. For making orange chicken, all you need is the juice. To make an orange cake, all you need is the rime of the orange. If they thought about their interests, there would have been no need to split the orange in half because cutting it in half may not have yielded the results they wanted.”


Prof. Pasandalan advised that in any disagreement, it is important not just to focus on one’s position but also to consider the underlying interests. She emphasized that positions are often surface-level stances, while true interests lie beneath. To resolve conflicts effectively, it is crucial to share and understand these deeper interests.


Participants engaged in four activities throughout the workshop session, first was to answer the prompt, “Write what you think you know about other cultures”. These anonymous statements were then read aloud and were identified if they were either true or false. Next, was an activity where the participants wrote their current reality, things they can do, and things they cannot do in order to identify their strengths. The third activity tasked was to draw an image of peace, and then co-own and co-create an image of peace via groups of five to combine their distinct ideas of peace.


“I enjoyed a lot of the activities, makaingon jud kag they are promoting peace jud kay we are united nga makicollab sa uban, kinahanglan jud namo magcooperate. Dapat walay nonchalant or magsolo-solo. Usa sa mga naenjoy sad nako kay mas nagkaila mi, og didto mas nagkabonding mi,” John Paul Estinopo, one of the participants from Lanao del Sur, shared in an interview.


Estinopo reflected on how he learned a great deal from the first day of the workshop, not only about peace and engagement but also about collaboration. He mentioned that what stood out to him the most in the lecture was the idea that what you think will eventually shape what you can achieve. He expressed that if you are going to think about something, you should ensure it is positive so that the outcome will also be positive.


“I think on of the most memorable lessons I got from today’s lecture about peace is: interest and positions. We realize that oftentimes the way we interact with people is with a reference to our position and we want our needs to be resolved rather than looking at the interest. With that, we learned, not just me, that there has to be an intention. Before we bargain for our needs, we need to go back to that interest,” Zailla Alarde, one of the participants from Iligan City, stressed in an interview.


Amihan: Young Peace Weavers

Amihan: Young Peace Weavers is an advocacy project funded by the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) of the U.S. State Department and the Kenan Foundation. Led by Lou Ellen Antonio, Project Leader; Moner Ramos-Datu, Communications Officer; and Christian Paul Vailoces, this initiative aims to bridge the divides brought upon by stereotypes, prejudices, and social fragmentation, fueled by misinformation on the cultural and religious differences of ethnolinguistic groups, particularly within Iligan City and Lanao provinces.


The three-day Digital Storytelling Workshop is just one of several planned initiatives for Project Amihan. Upcoming activities include webinars on peacebuilding, media literacy, and positive social media use; online contests; an online peace and friendship festival; a social media campaign; and website development. Anchoring on friendship as a tool for peacebuilding, the project essentially seeks to foster connections across communities and highlight the transformative power of friendship in building peace and understanding in the Lanao Provinces.


This project is one of the five initiatives selected by YSEALI for funding during the 2024 YSEALI Regional Workshop: Creating Positive Online Spaces, which focused on promoting positive online environments and addressing disinformation and hate speech, held last May in Bangkok, Thailand.