Building peace from the ground up in the Philippines
Manila (AsiaNews) - The path to cooperation and education for peace begins at the Jesuit university in Manila. The Jesuit initiative is in collaboration with the University of Peace (UPEACE), an institution created in 1980 during the general assembly of the United Nations.
On October 24, 28 students from Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, South Korea, and the Philippines will receive their masters degree in "international peace studies"; their course of study represents an opportunity for Asian students to continue their postgraduate formation, as well as improve their English.
There is another important initiative along the same lines: from October 15-21, a summit was held of the general assembly of the religious confessions in Asia (ACRP - Asian Conferences of Religions for Peace). In this, 350 representatives of different religions worked on the theme of "building peace in Asia." Through this meeting, attended also by the Filipino bishops' conference and representatives of the Dominican University of St. Thomas, the character of dialogue and culture required by this topic was reflected: "Our aim is to harmonize the various religions and traditions," comments Joselito B. Zulueta, a professor at the University of St. Thomas.
On October 15 and 16, the Jesuit university hosted a conference of the ACRP, entirely focused on women's issues, which brought forth the fundamental role of women in working for peace. Attention was also given to children and young people, as the primary victims of conflict. Over the thirty years of its activity, this association has brought about important steps for peace, in part by simply promoting awareness of certain situations. In any case, Lourdes Mastura, president of the ACRP in the Philippines, stresses: "Knowledge is always the first step, the tortuous process of peace requires patience. You don’t build peace overnight. You first build a constituency for peace. And perhaps build awareness of the urgency of peace."
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