Landmine action groups hold first mine risk education course
in the Philippines
Manila 21st November 2009
Eleven NGO workers from Cotabato
City, Mindanao
have just completed the first Mine and UXO Risk Education (MRE)
Train-the-Trainer course. The project, a
joint venture between the Philippines Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) and its
international partner, the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), ran from
November 4th to the 18th.
The course is the first of its kind in the Philippines and the lessons learned
from it, and the MRE messages and materials the students produced on it, will pave
the way for future MRE and Mine Action projects. Effectively, this marks the start of
Humanitarian Mine Action (the clearance of explosive remnants of war) in the Philippines.
The newly-trained
MRE Providers will deliver safety messages and give advice and assistance to
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other communities affected by
unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Mindanao. Priority will be given to those communities
returning to villages that have been the scene of fighting and which are likely
to be UXO contaminated. The MRE
providers will also be a conduit through which communities can report UXO so
that bomb disposal teams can deal with the explosive hazards.
Eleven trainees attended the course. They were drawn from four local
organisations: the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA): the main implementing
partner for the Mindanao Trust Fund and active in post-conflict reconstruction;
Community and Family Services International (CFSI), which carries out many
humanitarian assistance projects in the Philippines; and two local NGOs: KFPDAI and MTB both of whom assist IDPs to rebuild
their lives following armed conflict and displacement.
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PCBL Coordinator, Atty. Soliman M. Santos, and students discuss how MRE,
and Mine Action in general, will assist the Peace Process
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The course began with a morning session on the importance of
Mine Action to the Peace Process and the role the MRE providers will play in
this. The session was delivered by Atty.
Soliman M. Santos, Jr. of the Philippines Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL),
the country civil society campaign group on the landmines issue since
1995. He explained that MRE is not only
as one of the five pillars of Mine Action, but also a starting point for the Mine
Action effort, which in turn is an integral part of peace-building. He stressed
also that Mine Action is not just a short-term entry point for peace-building
but also a long-term part of its four domains of security, development,
political framework and reconciliation. This
makes it relevant to the Mindanao peace process, particularly that between the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Atty. Santos pointed out that Mine Action is sometimes
closely linked or tied to the peace process, sometimes not. One example of the former is FSD/PCBL’s proposal
for GRP-MILF joint UXO clearance operations in conflict-affected areas, which
depends upon agreement and coordination of both parties through peace process
mechanisms such as the peace panels, which accepted the proposal, and the joint
ceasefire committees, which will determine the terms of reference. On the
other hand, training of MRE providers, which concerns conflict-affected
communities more than the two parties, did not require similar prior or formal
approval of the peace panels.
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FSD MRE Specialist, Ali Marc Wazne,
guides trainees
in the creation of MRE messages
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Trainee MRE providers discuss
and fine tune MRE messages
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FSD trainers covered the theoretical and practical aspects
of MRE. The emphasis was on the latter
and trainees practised MRE delivery, ranging from peer-assessed micro-teaching
sessions to a two-day practical exercise in local schools. As there were no MRE materials specific to Mindanao readily available prior to the start of the
course, the design of MRE messages and material also played a large part in the
training. Students were taught the basic
principles of MRE messages, then worked in groups to produce core MRE messages specifically
for Mindanao.
MRE information posters in the local language were also produced to help
convey the messages.
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Trainee MRE providers design, discuss
and evaluate MRE posters
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FSD/PCBL will run a second MRE course in December, on which
at least ten more students will be trained.
A joint graduation ceremony, for students from both courses, is planned
for the 12th December. Graduates
of the first course will also assist in teaching on the second. Whereas the medium of instruction in these
initial courses is English (there are currently no known vernacular-speaking
MRE Instructors) the aim is that subsequent MRE Provider training will be
conducted in the local language, and the mentoring of local instructors is one
of FSD/PCBL’s aims.
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Trainee MRE providers delivered MRE
messages to local schools
as part of the final practical exercise
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Later on, MRE will
be followed up with humanitarian demining, a prospect that will be made more
feasible by progress in the peace talks, and an effective ceasefire on the
ground. Joint mine/UXO clearance will,
in turn, constitute a significant contribution to the security, humanitarian,
rehabilitation and development aspects of the peace process as well as to
confidence-building between the parties and amongst the benefited communities.
For further details, please contact:
PCBL.
Atty. Soliman M. Santos, Jr., PCBL Coordinator, Telefax
(+632) 7252153, Mobile:
(+63920) 2903602,
e-mail: gavroche23@gmail.com
FSD.
Tony Fish, Regional Representative, FSD South
East Asia. Mobile:
(+63939) 6436806;
e‑mail: tony.fish@fsd.ch
Ali Marc Wazne, MRE Specialist, FSD Philippines, Mobile: (+63920) 5387820;
e‑mail: alimarc.wazne@staff.fsd.ch
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