Stories of Life

Sr. Schola Mutua, RNDM works in Pikit, North Cotabato, a municipality devastated by war.

One of the components of OMF-IRD is the inter-religious dialogue; respecting other religions and calling them to dialogue. In its endeavour to provide such venues, the IRD advocates for the four forms of dialogue; dialogue life, dialogue of action, dialogue of religiuos discourse and dialogue of religiuos experiences. This particular community is composed of Muslims and Christians.

Solidarity activities like Duyog Ramadhan is one of those dialogue of life activities. Mostly during the breaking of Fast or Buka, we hold such an activity. Because of the harmonious relationship which has existed already in the community, the level of trust has improved thus both groups are willing and open to welcome each other.The Christians  within the community prepare the food and the whole community joins in the breaking of the Fast or Buka. While waiting for the activity to begin, I had a chat with these women and children.

In order to engage people in dialogue especially where people have been living in conflict affected areas, the pre-requisite is to provide some form of livelihood. This realization became very clear when the OMF-IRD began peace advocacy work. One cannot talk to people about peace with empty stomachs.  For donors who wish to help and are committed to fund the organization, livelihood and inter-religious dialogue had to go hand in hand.

In these photos, we distributed spades and vegetable seeds for more than three hundred families. Although very basic, this has contributed some income to the families. Since not everyone received, the spirit of sharing is very much alive in the lives of the people.  They shared the vegetables and later, they shared the seeds. Before the distribution, all those who received spades and vegetable seeds had undergone some training and this proved to be very helpful to them.

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