A story of change built on trust, sincerity, partnership, and collaborative actions of various agencies; the story of the development of the Camp Bilal Community was presented by Omairah Usman, Project Officer and Panelist in the recently-held Business for Peace Conference last February 17, at the SEDA Centrio, Cagayan de Oro city.
She further shared on the context, challenges and dreams of the community in transition specifically on the importance of community ownership and community-led development in implementing projects.
One of the panelists, Naif Amer said:
This is our long-term commitment to peace giving importance to the voices of the community as our genuine partners for lasting peace. This is more than a business, this is a journey, our journey, our story of change.
The conference aims to provide a platform for exchanging of ideas and constructive dialogue and a chance to engage with fellow attendees which included the Hineleban Foundation, the UP Center for Integrative Studies, the MSU IIT IPDM, other donor organizations, members from the BARMM government and communities, and OPAPRU with other line agencies. Furthermore, the activity was also graced by H.E. Marielle Gergedts, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to the Philippines
Other agencies and representatives from BARMM also presented updates, challenges, and opportunities in community transformation and in the normalization process.
A peace brought forth from cooperation is a well-founded peace indeed. It is through this cooperation between institutions and communities that propel us ever closer to that sustainable, lasting peace.
This is what we have always done, and will always do; for we are Pakigdait and this is the #pakigdaitway
