CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA) - Young Mindanawons from all across the island-region gathered here over the weekend for a week-long youth camp aimed at encouraging authentic youth participation in planning Mindanao's future using the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan as the main platform. Dubbed "Moving Mindanao: A Mindanao 2010 and Creative Advocacy Camp," the week-long activity will gather at least 60 young Mindanawons, representing different sectors, regions, and cultural backgrounds to participate in a series of activities designed to facilitate better understanding about Mindanao's history of conflict and underdevelopment as well as the issues confronting the Mindanao youth of today.
Inspired by the theme "We Matter," the camp provides a platform for the youth to meaningfully participate in crafting the future of Mindanao and its people by sharing their ideas and inputs to the formulation of the Mindanao 2020 Peace and Development Framework Plan, a blueprint that provides the 20-year strategic direction and framework for peace and development in the region. The youth camp, which runs from October 8 to 12, is a project organized by the Kids for Peace Foundation Inc. and the Young Advocates for Peace (YAP) with support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). According to the Kids for Peace Foundation, the project is borne out of the desire to engage the young people of Mindanao in creatively visualizing their future Mindanao and convincing policymakers to integrate their views in the Mindanao 2020 plan.
The foundation said that the people who will remain active and well in Mindanao are the youth of today, hence, they must be involved in doing the critical things that must be done that will impact on their future. "Here, we would like to encourage the youth to help in building the image of Mindanao using their own perspectives," said Deewai Rodriguez who leads the management team of YAP. "This time, the youth must assert their roles especially in building the future of Mindanao," said Iya Agbon, founder of the Kids for Peace Foundation. Agbon pointed out that the youth must revisit history to understand the present Mindanao situation and rally behind a much better Mindanao in the future. She added that the camp is an opportune time for the youth to celebrate the diversity of people and culture in Mindanao.
"What we are also trying to do here is opening the youth's communication lines as early as now," said Agbon, adding that such exercise aims to avoid biases, prejudice and misunderstanding in the future as these are oftentimes the roots of conflict. On the other hand, the camp will also engage the participants in skills-enhancing activities such as photography, filmmaking, packaging big books and other creative ways to promote Mindanao advocacies. The activity is also being supported by the National Youth Commission (NYC), Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) in line with promoting wide ownership and participation to the Mindanao 2020.
