During our trip we had meetings with representatives of government institutions, local and international organizations as well as villages. Interestingly the ratio of women on leading positions seemed to be equal and that fact was inspiring. The development of a country is tightly connected with bringing women to leadership positions. When women are involved in the process of shaping the national policy, they provide in depth analysis of issues relating to women and address women’s issues properly.
There was a meeting with one of the government officials. She shared with our group her life story that was not an easy one. When the conflict again erupted between Mindanao armed groups and state military, some barangays were caught in crossfire. One of those unlucky barangays was her home. Pot, some rice and a few clothes were the only belongings her family could salvage. She faced hard times as she and her family lost everything they had, including their house. They were displaced to another barangay. Because of this incident she could not complete her secondary education. However, when we met her she had completed her higher education. She also had family and she had lived abroad for some time. According to her, at some point she decided to came back to Mindanao, to the same barangay, in order to help the local people who were experiencing the same fate.
The other day we met an energetic leader Ms. Irene Santiago from a Global campaign on women, peace, and security called “Women seriously”. Main activities of the organization except trainings are organizing peace tables at various places. One of the goals of this organization is to attract 20 million women to join the movement. The leader seemed to be powerful, influential and convincing in her statements. The energy and passion calling all the women around the globe to unite in the name of protecting, supporting women and children, and of course in the name of bringing peace is extraordinary. One of the main barriers of women’ s exclusion from peace negotiations she finds the fact that “women are not warriors”. She meant that women do not participate literally in armed conflicts, but rather a great share of them participate in effective peace advocacy as a religious leader pointed out.
