Peace Village II: Key Activities

As advocates of peace, the children declared guns as non-peaceful toys that tend to encourage violence in the home and playgrounds. Playing with toy guns, they realized, are simulations of war, violence and killings that corrupt young minds with subliminal stimulations towards violence.

Children with toy guns brought and “surrendered” them in exchange for seedlings from the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office. To symbolize their condemnation of violence, they had a ceremonial burning of toy guns.

The activity also symbolizes the conversion from arms to farms. The exchange of toy guns with seedlings also signifies care and concern for the environment. The seedlings they received from the provincial government were planted on the capitol grounds.

The tree planting ceremony was joined by the provincial officials of Lanao del Norte, DepEd officials, and officers of the Asia Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding. [top]

The learning hubs provided a creative teaching and learning environment that attempts to offset the apparent built-in authority of the teacher over learners normally experienced in classrooms.

Fun-filled and participatory activities were conducted in each learning hub where the teacher took on the role of the facilitator rather than a person in authority.

Children were welcomed to roam around, discover and learn new things through demonstrations, question & answer forums, actual observations, experiments, hands-on practice inside each of the nine (9) learning hubs: Cultural Village, Music, Arts, Physical Education & Health, Mathematics, Science, English, Filipino, Alternative Learning System, EPP/TLE, Boy Scout of the Philippnes.

<<A peek into the Science Learning Hub. A man-made pond serves as a miniature ecosystem modeling a real one that plays host to groups of independent but coexisting organisms. The model highlights visually for the children the interrelationship and interdependence of living and non-living organisms as a primordial requisite to life. [top]

Delegates to the 2nd Northern Mindanao Peace Village joyously shared a Shower of Peace where they all bathed together symbolizing their oneness in their commitment to create a culture of peace.

This also symbolizes the cleansing of personal biases and prejudices that each participant carries with him/her. The shower of peace "washes away" all these baggages and gives each participant a clean start, an open mind and an open heart, ready to embrace individual differences.

An observer-participant from Metro Manila shared, “In Manila, the water cannon serves as an instrument of force, used to disperse rallyists and protesters; here in Lanao del Norte, it is used as a tool for peace. [top]

The Peace Congress is the highlight of the Peace Village. It aimed primarily to offer an engaging vemue to learners for a discourse on peace. It gave the learners the chance to express and test their thoughts and insights. It also encouraged them to share their stories and personal experiences of conflict and peace.

The sharing enabled them to develop basic interpersonal skills needed in creating a culture of peace, such as listening, communication, empathy and understanding.

The Peace Congress thus encouraged the children to practice critical thinking by understanding, confronting and analyzing their current situation and come up with possible ways to create a culture of peace within themselves, their school and their community.

The children were asked basic questions, such as:

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The Peace Wall is an art gallery of children’s ideas and feelings about conflict. Here, children displayed their own creative artworks as they explored the concepts and practices of nonviolence. The children tried to illustrate their visions of peace and the kind of world they wish to create. The Peace Wall is where they recorded their thoughts, feelings, dreams and visions of peace in words and drawings. [top]

The cultural night celebration is part of the Peace Village’s aim of fostering respect and understanding of individual and cultural differences in order to achieve oneness.

Delegates to the 2nd Northern Mindanao Peace Village represent the 6 provinces (Lanao del Norte, Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon & Valencia) and 6 cities (Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Ozamis, Tangub, Gingoog & Oroquieta) within the region. Each of them has its own set of values, cultures and beliefs producing a very diverse group

This diversity required a venue for a cultural exchange, where they are able to showcase their rich cultures and traditions in the form of dance, drama, songs and rituals as well as enable them to learn about and see the beauty of other cultures and traditions different from theirs. The cultural night satisfied these requirements and became a venue for them to celebrate similarities and appreciate differences. [top]