In its bid to create regional nodes that aim to develop and promote positive alternative messages of peace, EAI-PH continues to round Mindanao to establish and launch its Messaging Hubs (MH).
Last October 11, EAI-PH launched its third MH at the lobby of the College of Social Sciences, Mindanao State University, Marawi City. The Ranaw MH is hosted by the Communication and Media Studies Department of MSU-Marawi led by Professor Sorhaila Latip-Yusoph.
“The Communication and Media Studies department of MSU is the heart of information and communication and the office that has the function to reach out to the people We wish to see the new Marawi with peace in its community’s heart,” she said.
Prof. Yusoph has also been a resident speaker for Podcasting and Media Communications in the previous Tech Camps organized. She is also the anchor of the S’bang ka Marawi Radio Program of Ideals with EAI-PH.
Prior to the launching, a strategic planning led by EAI-PH was held at MSU-Marawi’s Ranaw Council Center. It was attended by members of the Technical Working Group which included representatives from Duyog Marawi, MSU-Marawi Faculty, Youth Peace Campaign Lab, Student Action Force – MSU Chapter, AMIN-TACI, PLGU Lanao del Sur, Iligan Medical Center College – Center for Community Extension and Social Development Services, Inc., THUMA, Inc., Peace Crops, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, and Tech Camp alumni among others.
TWG Member and Peace Crops Project Field Manager Rey Anacleto said that their organization is leaning towards engaging with various humanitarian and development actors in Lanao del Sur to bolster EAI’s peace initiatives in the grassroots level.
“Peace Crops linked with EAI-PH’s Ranaw MH to empower emerging youth leaders to help their grassroots communities, victims of war (IDPs), and rebel returnees to have an inclusive development through agroenterprise that can pave the way to a sustainable peace not just in Lanao provinces, but also in Mindanao,” Ancleto shared.
Peace Crops is a youth-led organization that aims to stem the growing threat of violent extremism in Lanao del Sur by engaging the community in productive agroenterprise activities.
Following the Ranaw MH Launching was the strategic planning for the Davao MH last October 28 at the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU).
Davao’s MH is hosted by AdDU’s Al Qalam Institute for Islamic Identities and Dialogue in Southeast Asia. Al Qalam is an institute for understanding Islam, the Muslims, and peoples of Mindanao that are culturally linked to other Southeast Asian communities. It actively contributes toward fortification of spirituality and nurturing a society founded on social justice, gender equity, multiculturalism, religious pluralism and sustainable peace and human development.
The Davao MH is set to be launched in celebration of the Mindanao Week of Peace this November.
The Messaging Hub is a convergence platform for positive social change movements in Mindanao. It seeks to collaborate with stakeholders in the region to create a venue for knowledge-sharing, build an information ecosystem, capacitate peace influencers, and create powerful advocacies for peace.
