UN-INMA PIKIT FIELDTRIP REPORT (REVISED)
Post Emergency Situation Report
On Community Psychosocial Resources,
Resilience and Wellness Processes
SEA-EPSN Field Trip to Post War Zone in
Pikit, Mindanao, Philippines
13-19 November 2004
Written April, 2014.
Consistent with the notion ‘rapid
assessment’, this report from UN-INMA was originally available to the
Secretariat within 14 hours of return
to Manila from the war zone around Pikit in Mindanao in Philippines in November
2004.
Interim Reports were sent within three hours of arrival and then twice a day
during the Field Trip.
This Revised Report follows the Rapid
Assessment of Disasters Proforma reviewed at the Tagaytay Gathering in 2004.
Personal Reports of other Field
Trip Members may vary considerably from this Report, in part from issues raised
in this Report.
This revised version is an Extended
UN-INMA Report with later reflections added.
A Team Synthesis Report was later
submitted to the Secretariat by one of the Team Leaders a number of months
after return to Manila. UN-INMA never received a copy of this Team Synthesis
Report.
Resonant Links:
o Rapid Assessing
of Local Wellness, Psycho-Social Resources & Resilience Following Disasters
(RAD)
o
Preparing for and Responding Well to Disasters - PRWD
o Recognising and
Evolving Local-lateral Links Between Various Support Processes
CONTENTS
Frameworks for Field
Trip Action
After briefly stating the team’s mission
and meta-mission, there’s a UN-INMA Rapid Assessment Situation Report on the
Pikit context based upon the Tagaytay Assessment Proforma, followed by a UN-INMA process review of the
briefing and functioning of the SEA-EPSN TEAM during the Pikit, Cotabato,
Mindanao Trip 13-19 November 2004 covering what worked well and major shortcomings relating to the
mission.
FRAMEWORKS FOR FIELD TRIP ACTION
Prior to giving
the Situation Report, this document specifies the following frameworks for
field trip Action:
o
The Framing Ultimate Purpose
(Meta-Mission)
o The Field Team’s Mission
o The Framing of Support Action
o The Framing of
SEA-EPSN Reports
THE
FRAMING ULTIMATE PURPOSE (META-MISSION)
From the Secretariat Pre-trip Briefing, the Field Teams ultimate
purpose was fostering possibilities and opportunities for local people to mutually engage in their own ways of being
and acting together towards expressing and enjoying their own rich integral
wellness states through mutual-help.
Also from that Briefing, the Field Team’s purpose was guided by values of respect for community-self
determination of their own cultural and spiritual life ways.
It later emerged that some of the Team members, not at the Team
Briefing in Manila did not share this Framing Meta-Mission.
THE FIELD TEAM’S
MISSION
From the Briefing,
our mission on this field trip was to:
o Provide
psychosocial support to the self-help and mutual-help actions of the people of
Pikit in their post emergency contexts (some
team members did not see this as the team mission)
o Prepare a
situation report on the protracted emergency in Pikit for potential use by
outside aid organisations including local NGOs and CBOs
o Pre-test and
report on SEA-EPSN Emergency Response Guidelines, Proforma and Resources (some team members did not have any
knowledge of or familiarity with the Guidelines, Proforma or Resources)
o Support the local
NGOs and CBOs
o Create a model
Case Study Post Emergency Situation Report for:
o including in the resources
o for distribution
among SEA-EPSN members
It appears that some team members did
little to contribute to writing a situation report. Any feedback from some of
the team members seemed to be primarily a critique of the UN-INMA member. The
UN-INMA team member was never sent a copy of the final Situation Summary
submitted months later by one of the team leaders.
o Realplay, evolve
and report on Emergency Team functioning in the field
The SEA-EPSN field
team recognises (?) that:
o
Going into emergency contexts is a growth
challenge (some team members did not
recognise this)
o
Engaging in actions focusing on achieving the
above mission in emergency contexts typically stretches members beyond current
competencies
o
Apart from sources of stress emerging from
the emergency context, interpersonal stress in the team may flow from
experiencing others engaged in adaptive
mission-based action beyond the stressed person’s’ experience, as well as from
the team engaging in discomforting personal and interpersonal growth rather
than retreating to defensive harmony maintaining the status quo and current
performance – team growth takes people beyond their current comfort level and
beyond their traditional domains of competency (some team members were not the least interested in personal or team
growth)
That some members of the team were not on
board with the team’s mission (and neither were the local NGO people in Pikit)
influenced the outcomes and reported outcomes of the Field Trip and team
members comments on their fellow team members.
THE
FRAMING OF SUPPORT ACTION
1.
Experience in the Region has demonstrated,
given appropriate contexts, the efficacy of:
o Respectful gentle
caring presence
o Attending and
listening
o Cultural
respectfulness and sensitivity
o Community-based
normalizing action
o
Supporting of the local natural nurturers
and the local ways for reconstituting wellness – ceremonies, rituals, and the
like
o
Sharing micro-experiences gathered from
the Region if the locals want; this may increase local people’s capacities for
return to wellness
2.
We ensure that all action is in keeping
with local culture and way.
3.
Local NGOs may give guidance
4.
Having, wherever possible, the community
or communities making the decisions, using, as much as possible, their normal
decision-making or other agreeing processes about things like the layout of
camps, places for and of worship, schools, play areas, basic rules for local
governance of the camps, and the like – locals
reconstituting local normalising
governance
5.
Providing enabling support for internally
displaced people, refugees and others effected by man-made and natural emergencies
so they may be involved in substantive mutual benefit action such as:
1) camp set-up and
organization
2) local camp
governance
3) family, friend and
community reunion, and
4) food distribution
6.
Reconstituting some, or all aspects of
schooling and other everyday life experience for children - creating safe
child-friendly spaces
7.
Identifying and supporting the continuing
of existing wellbeing activities, as well as supporting the commencing of
normal everyday activities that locals have not yet reconstituted among the
communities affected by the emergency - within camps and informal and formal
settings
8.
Fostering and supporting cultural healing
action and re-creational activities for children, adolescents and adults as an
aid to increasing wellbeing: play, artistry in all its local forms - painting,
puppetry, drama, theatre, dancing, music making, sculpture, storytelling,
singing, chanting, dance, celebrating, and the like
9.
Respectfully supporting and fostering the
reconstituting of cultural and religious happenings, rituals, ceremonies,
celebrating and events by locals
10. Fostering and
enabling existing and new self-help and mutual-help groups and networking; and
11. Recognising and
supporting intergenerational respect, care and nurturing.
THE FRAMING OF SEA-EPSN REPORTS
The following sets
out the framing of SEA-EPSN Reports. This framing follows closely the protocols
agreed to at the Tagaytay Pre-test Gathering. Some team members had little or no appreciating of, or agreement with
much of this framing.
o
Nothing
happens unless locals want it to happen
o
Locals are the authority on their own wellness
o
Locals typically know what is missing from their wellbeing
o
Local carers and nurturers are typically present and informally
networking among the traumatised; they typically extend care and nurturing in
everyday contexts - we seek, identify, respect, care, nurture, and enable them
o SEA-EPSN field
team members take no action that harms or even potentially harms anyone. If
there is any chance of harm resulting from information we gather, then the
relevant people’s details are not passed on.
o
SEA-EPSN member field action supports the local people’s
resilience, competencies, resources, wellbeing, mutual cooperating and human
rights
o
Our action enables and supports locals to carry out their own healing caring using their own local healing caring ways –
fostering self-help and mutual-help caring and networking among
the local carers
o
We may offer to share other healing ways, if they want them – allowing them to tap into and adapt for
example, Australasian, Cambodian, Indonesian, Pinoy, Thai, Timor Leste, and
Vietnamese wellbeing experience
o
Prescribing outside
healing ways may alienate and harm – early action takes the time to
respectfully and sensitively sense the local context – wisdom is needed
o
SE Asia Oceania everyday life-ways and worldviews are reflected in
their psychologies and social psychologies and vice versa – a central theme is
personal, familial, and community inter-connectedness, inter-relatedness and
inter-dependence. Support action is resonant with, and supports this way.
o
This interconnectedness extends to notions of wellness and being
well (wellbeing) and recognises, respects and supports the potency of the
interconnectedness of these ways:
o
Emotional wellbeing
o
Cultural wellbeing
o
Psycho-social - interpersonal, family, friendship, and communal
wellbeing
o
Economic and livelihood wellbeing
o
Mindbody wellbeing
o
Habitat, geo-social, local place and environmental wellbeing
o
Spiritual and transcendent wellbeing
o
Shared everyday-life wellbeing
o
Creative and artistic wellbeing
It is recognised
that returning to normal local everyday life typically has substantial
wellbeing related psychosocial effects and SEA-EPSN actions aims to sense these
local life ways and their effects, and support normalising of local everyday
life ways.
It is further
recognized that:
1. The many
traumatizing contexts in an emergency may all have a profound impact on psychosocial wellbeing
2. Emergencies typically
have visible and invisible effects
3. Large numbers of
traumatized people invariably stretch service delivery processes beyond
capacity. Typically, not enough professionally trained trauma support people
may be mobilized.
4. We recognise that
the very ways local people may use to live with the aversive affects of
emergency contexts – blocking emotions and feelings, disconnecting from the
world, distancing others, becoming rigid in mind and body, harbouring hatred
and revenge and the like have survival value; they are also problematic in the
longer term.
5. Local people’s
ways of adapting to and living with trauma and other aversive affects of
emergency contexts may make these effects invisible and very difficult to
identify.
6. SEA-EPSN processes
support tapping into and strengthening the self-help and mutual-help networks
among the locals. These support processes may limit the impact of emergency
events and speed up the return to everyday normal functioning and wellbeing.
7. SEA-EPSN
recognises that local
self-help and mutual-help processes, practices, nodes and networks are critical
components of local self-organizing process through which local resilience and
wellbeing may be re-established and/or maintained.
8. It is recognised
that adequate nutrition, good sanitation and clean water, stopping the spread
of infectious diseases, adequate shelter, safety and the like are all crucial
in the early phases of support. Establishing basic safe and sanitary conditions may maintain survival at
base-line value.
9. In promoting and advancing life, people may hold a
space for wellbeing - creating contexts for self-organizing life-ways to
reconstitute living wellness. For this, psychosocial and wider
wellbeing support may be crucial.
10. SEA-EPSN
recognises that the end of a conflict may increase distress for a certain time,
due to the following:
a) People hearing
news of deaths and physical and psychosocial injury of family members,
relatives, or friends
b) Families may find
out that their home and/or other property has been destroyed, lost, looted, or
taken over by others
c) Tensions in the
community may be exacerbated by the return of demobilized combatants (adults
and children) who still have weapons.
11) During emergencies
and emergency contexts the situation may change very rapidly. SEA-EPSN
recognises that data collection and its analysis must be done quickly and as
thorough as possible given presenting circumstances. The results are ideally
distributed quickly to decision-makers. SEA-EPSN team members endeavour to collect
as appropriate to context. The analysis is as specific as possible to ensure
the best development of community-based, phase-specific action. We recognise
that in many senses the Situation Report can never be ‘complete’.
THE
SITUATIONAL REPORT
INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF THE DISASTER
1. SPECIFY THE LOCALITY
The area visited
is the municipality of Pikit in the Province of Cotabato on the Island of
Mindanao, in Southern Philippines. Pikit has seven Barangays (districts). We
stayed and worked in Takepan Barangay made up of a number of Situ - small
hamlets – from a few to around fifty houses typically made of local materials.
The word ‘Situation’ as in ‘Situation Report’ derives from the Latin ‘situ’. We
also had a visit to Pikit and a small group had a return visit to Pikit to meet
the Social Work area of the Pikit Local Government. The local Military Barracks
was also visited.
2. DESCRIBE THE NATURE OF THE EMERGENCY
The local
population has experienced repeated outbreaks of war since 1997, the latest in
February 2014 with over 35,000 internally displaced people. There have been
many wars over the past 250 plus years. The central triggering theme is
‘Islamic people seeking self-determination’. From the Islamic Moro people being
the massive majority in the past, they are now less than 20% of population
among the Christian majority. The Islamic people score low on most
socio-economic indicators. There are a few Lumad indigenous people in the Pikit
region. Conflict results in civilians of all three groups in the Pikit region
fleeing into the evacuation centres such as primary and secondary school
playgrounds, wayside stopping places along the main road and in church grounds.
The main protagonists are the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Force) and the
Philippine Army.
Many Situs in
Pikit have both Muslim and Christian families living together in close
harmonious cooperative rice growing and farming communities. Typically, the
Situ leader role is rotated between Muslim and Christian, with a deputy leader
selected from the other religion. Conflict places pressure on the harmony of
these mixed Situs. Muslim and Christians cooperatively share most of the
evacuation centres, e.g. the large Catholic Church in Pikit.
During conflict,
each situ is typically completely evacuated, with the civilian population in
affected areas (ranging from 20,000 to 40,000) compressed into evacuation
centres for the duration of the conflict. During a recent conflict 160,000
people were displaced in Pikit and surrounding areas.
The main (sealed)
highway between Cotabato and Davao is a key military feature, with both sides
fighting for control of sections of the road, especially key bridges. The road
is also a key conduit for local farming communities fleeing to evacuation
centres. Civilians may and do get caught in the cross fire. The local
population are farmers (mainly rice) and use water buffalo to plough. After
cessation of hostilities and when the men sense it is safe, they return to
check on livestock and work their fields, returning at night to the evacuation
centres. People get killed on these Situ return trips. During hostilities
livestock are lost or killed and houses are damaged or destroyed. Protracted
conflict is placing immense strain on the local farming communities.
Locals are also
exposed to flash flooding on the irrigation area west of Pikit and El Nino
drought on the east side where watering uses spring based water. The last El Nino affected more than 900,000 families
(including Indigenous peoples called Lumad) throughout Mindanao.
Inter-family
feuding called ‘Redo’ is an ongoing danger with killing and payback killing
going on for years. Redo has potential to trigger wider conflict and all-out
war. It is not unknown for a family member who is also a member of the MILF to
be killed. Local families have been known to attempt to rake in MILF and the
Philippines military into their redo dispute.
We held a meeting
with the military at the Army Headquarters south of Pikit. They made it clear
that peace and peacekeeping are their priority and that they are very careful
not to be drawn into redo contexts.
Some have noted
that conflict tends to have a three year cycle with conflict erupting in the
year prior to elections. This observation may be usefully explored and factored
into peace talks if there is any substance – by what process?
ENTRY PROCESS
There
are three local NGOs in Pikit - each with their head offices in
There
is also a community-based voluntary social support network (CBO - civilian
based organisation) coordinated through the Catholic Church in Pikit. This can
be linked with via any one of the local NGOs. It has ongoing action supporting
each other in the network, experiential learning gatherings and outreach
supporting local communities.
We had
discussions with the Pikit Municipal Government Social Work Section which has a
three person team to support 9000 families (over 40,000 people). Their
resources are typically stretched beyond capacity, even in peace times. In times of conflict they may play a key
coordinating role between local support bodies and between local and
international bodies.
It is recommended
that at
all times visiting Aid Organisations arrange to be accompanied by local
people from the above organisations (or others arranged by these local people).
There is still potential for harm from kidnappers and hostile elements, especially
for people from America or people that may be mistaken for Americans. The
specified locals can act as interpreters and provide a constant guide to
cultural protocols. In this rural environment, outsiders stand out (especially
if over five foot ten inches tall), attract attention, and may be perceived by
locals to have energies that unsettle, regardless of intention.
Prior to arrival,
arrange for local accommodation and briefings through the Manila offices of the
three NGOs who typically, have the latest information on events unfolding in
Pikit Municipality - including security.
For international
aid organisation contemplating setting up a base in the field they would have
to negotiate entry with the national government, local military, and the local
government as well as link with the local NGOs. The local farming communities
each have a well evolved night security patrol and are well armed. There is a
nightly password process and call and respond process that has to be complied
with or gun fire will ensue. As well, night movement on the ground has the
added hazard of aggressive cobras snakes.
3. DETAIL THE LOCAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT
STRUCTURE
There
are three Local NGO’s in Pikit - each one has their head office in Manila (see above
and refer SEA-EPSN Secretariat for introductions.
Our
team received a briefing from one of the Pikit NGOs in Manila and we were
supported locally by members of that NGO who met us at Cotabato airport with a
van that held our team and provisions. There is a massive military presence the
moment one leaves the airport, with no-man’s land of around 40 metres to cross
on foot. Either side of this is flanked by tanks and soldiers with guns at the
ready, with machine gun manned towers on either side. Be aware that Cotabato
Airport has planes land going uphill and there is a brief take off as the plane
goes over a crest till it bumps down over the crest with the balance of the
landing strip going downhill. To the right of the plane on taxiing to the
terminal are helicopter hangers with military helicopters at the ready.
Some members from
Pikit NGOs head offices attended
the SEA-EPSN consultative workshop in Tagaytay, August 2004.
There
is also a very active community volunteer network (around 50 people) through
the Catholic Church centre in Pikit who tend to provide services, with some
support for local mutual-help. While being natural nurturers, their primary
focus is practical (e.g. food distribution). They tend to give spontaneous
psychosocial support on-the-run as they do their practical work. They may not
fully sense the psychosocial benefits of their practical actions. We sensed
they saw ‘psychosocial’ as ‘a specialist area of main focus by trained experts’
delivering psycho-social services. Our sense is that these volunteers are doing
superb psychosocial support work without necessarily knowing it, and this
works.
There
is a Takepan Barangay evacuation plan in place. This has been evolved at the
‘top’ at the Council level. This could be explored further, especially as to
acceptance, familiarity and preparedness to use this plan at the grassroots.
Some
(maybe all) Situs have an evacuation plan and process in place.
Also
some, (perhaps all) families have an evacuation process.
These
plans/processes are very practical – including auditory and visual based
signals to evacuate, who to bring what, how to ensure no one left behind,
evacuation route and back up routes to avoid hostilities, even visual signals
between MILF and local citizens (for example, ‘we are passing through and mean
no harm so let us pass’). Some local civilians have the latest military weapons
and ammunition.
There
is a well armed local civilian militia that patrols at night to ensure
security. Two went silently without being seen or heard within feet of us when
we were sitting outside on a dark night except seen spotted by one field trip
member with superb night vision. These local civilian militia on patrol typically travel in pairs without
lights in the night. A Takepan Barangay law requires people walking at night to
carry fire (a torch is not allowed) and to identify themselves when asked by
security.
It is totally inadvisable for
NGO people from outside the area to be outside after dark in the Pikit
municipality.
It would be extremely wise to
learn the expression ‘Identify yourself’ and be able to convey quickly and
clearly who you are if caught out at night without flame! Also find out the
password for each night. Better still, stay indoors after dark. Find out the
local protocol for using the toilet after dark, some of them may be some metres
away from dwellings. Some nights can be black. UN-INMA member was not briefed
about behaviour at night nor briefed by the host family till the third night.
He had stayed indoors, though advanced notice was really vital.
A 5pm
(twilight) curfew is sensible for members of visiting international NGOs.
Always
meet way away from the road and under cover of darkness at night.
4. DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS CONTEXTS.
Currently there
are no hostilities.
The various Situs
are one context. Families and most of the community of a Situ are available to
congregate outside farm work hours by prior arrangement through the local
NGO’s. Imams (Muslim religious leaders) may also be present and be prepared to
talk. People speak English or local translators are generally available,
including local NGO people. Each community readily speaks and tells stories of
the practical ways they use to support themselves before, during, and after
conflict. Local ways of mutual support
are well established and used. Prayer, storytelling and mutual caring
presence (e.g. mothers holding children with both mother and children crying).
One Imam after composing himself told us that at times during the last conflict
he himself was so terrified and emotionally devastated that he was of little
religious or other support to others. He would wake crying and go to sleep
crying. It was that hard; though he did what he could.
By arrangement
through the local NGOs, and with Situ people knowing the purpose of the
meeting, it may be possible to have meetings with the leaders of a number of
Situs at a Barangay meeting place. Muslim Imams may be available to join these
meetings
By arrangement
through the local NGO’s it may be possible to meet the principals of the local
elementary and high schools that are distributed through the Pikit Region. We
were able to engage in structured experiences and free-form (spontaneous play)
within a cultural healing action psycho-social framework with the whole elementary
school child population together (600 children) at Takepan Elementary School
(as well as later at the back of the school, with the children grouped into
three groups of around 200). We also engaged with some classes at the Takepan
high school using focused group discussion and storytelling and spontaneous
music, song and dance using peace as a theme drawing upon cultural healing action
processes evolved by PETA – Philippines Educational Theatre Association led by
a PETA graduate on our Team.
During Conflict
During conflict,
the three NGO’s may be able to negotiate safe passage down the highway to Pikit
from either of Cotabato or Davao depending upon the moment to moment context.
The Manila head offices of the three NGOs may assist in rendezvousing with the
visiting team at Cotabato Airport or Davao Airport. There is no airport at
Pikit. The three NGOs may direct you to the various evacuation centres. Tee
this up before flying to Mindanao.
5. BRIEFLY SPECIFY THE GEOGRAPHY AND
ENVIRONMENT OF THE AFFECTED AREA – NATURE OF THE TERRAIN AND VEGETATION.
The land is
essentially a flat river valley with some higher rises. The main road is sealed.
Side roads are unmade with muddy spots. There are a system of narrow walking
paths through the rice fields. Most high points have armed military lookouts.
Military vehicles filled with armed soldiers patrol the road with rifles at the
ready and there are frequent military checkpoints. In passing one of these
trucks you experience having a row of loaded guns pointing at you.
Watch for cobras
in grassy areas. Many of the Situs are along the main road with some back a few
kilometres. There would be sticky mud in the wetter seasons. They typically
have two rice crops.
6. WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE BEFORE THE DISASTER?
There is
cooperative peaceful living in farm-based Situs with typically harmonious
relations between Muslims and Christian families.
Ongoing redo has
been a continuing concern.
7. WHAT CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED DUE TO THE
DISASTER? WITH WHAT EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE WELLNESS?
The situation we
have in Pikit is a protracted war context interspersed with months of peace.
The presence of military patrols is the only real visible signs of the
emergency. We gather from locals that the effects of the conflicts are
typically invisible. While all 40,000 in the area have been effected, we sense
that perhaps up to one in five (8,000 people) are seriously affected
psychosocially. This is what locals refer to as the invisible aspect of the
conflict. Disturbingly, some children are harbouring deeply entrenched hatred
driving a revenge to be potentially catastrophically released in another
fifteen to twenty years – thus perpetuating the cycle of violence. One young
child was found to have a very large collection of high calibre bullets hidden
in the long grass near his home. He told his mother they were there for him to
use when he grew up.
Planting bamboo as
a symbol of delayed revenge is common – where every notch on the bamboo is
another enemy to be killed. To reframe
the meaning of bamboo, one of the
NGOs has a peace-building
process titled ‘Bamboo for Peace’. One NGOs ‘Integrated Return and Rehabilitation Program’
entails Building Sanctuaries for Peace.
Another program is the linguistic skills program that is assisting youth who
have had their education devastated by protracted war.
If
the team had received prior briefing on these
programs in the Pikit region we could have linked with the local people
involved and gained feedback and provided support. Not knowing of them meant a
missed opportunity to engage and support.
While some
traumatised people may be known to family, teachers, religious leaders and the
like, I sense that many may not be recognised. 8,000 would stretch local NGO
and other local capacity beyond effectiveness.
A local way of
coping with trauma is to not showing emotion. Many people do not want to talk
and plan for evacuation, as it is seen as pre-emptive and assuming as a fait
accompli what they never want to occur again.
One of the key
roles of the local NGOs in time of conflict is the daily delivery of food and
water to the evacuation centres under the protection of a white flag ceasefire.
They have very effective processes for carrying out this essential service with
cooperation of both sides in the Conflict. This seems to be well established
and it works well.
We sense
Identifying local natural nurturers and their spontaneous friendship networks
and supporting them is a way to reach out in support of the traumatised. We
assume that the
Manilla head office people of the other two Pikit NGOs where well briefed about
our role in Pikit, namely, finding the local natural nurturers and supporting
the evolving of mutual-help networks in the Pikit Region.
UN-INMA
wrongly assumed that the local members of the NGOs were also similarly briefed. They were not briefed; only after returning
to Manilla was it found that the local NGO people we were working closely with,
felt extremely threatened by our (especially UN-INMA) reaching out to local
natural nurturers and evolving local mutual-help networks. Local NGO people
perceived this as potentially doing them out of a job.
The
local NGO people we were working with failed to see scope for multiple lateral
integration between lateral/bottom-up and top-down processes, or appreciate the
scope for shifting from vertical integration to lateral integration.
To protect themselves, they
sought to undermine the UN-INMA contribution. This
is a fundamental issue that needs to be worked through. Refer Interfacing
Complementary Ways and Government and Facilitating Grassroots Action.
8. WHAT ISSUES CONTRIBUTE TO DIVISIVENESS IN
THE DISASTER REGION? IN THE WIDER REGION?
Important feedback
from local experience is that international NGOs who act unilaterally without
detailed knowing of the local subtleties, and without acting cooperatively,
complementarily, and convergently with the local and other international NGOs, have caused strife in the past. This
strife had the potential to escalate hostilities within the civilian population
and the armed forces. This issue was mentioned by a number of influential
members of the Pikit community. This issue may never occur if the following
core principles are always followed, namely:
1. Liaise, converge and
cooperate with and complement the actions of local NGOs and CBOs
2. Never act
unilaterally and never ‘protect you own turf’
As stated, most
rice growing Situs have Muslims and Christians living in close harmony. People
run to their nearest evacuation centre. It follows, that evacuation centres
have Muslims, Lumad and Christian people all mixed together. There are a number
of different Christian denominations present.
Any outside body
coming to provide aid:
1. Must support all present without discrimination
2. Must refrain from any attempts to convert
Both of these have
happened. It caused massive strife, and the outside body was immediately
escorted off Mindanao and banned from any further role in Mindanao.
Redo is an ongoing
concern with local peacehealing processes in place to stop this as a cultural
phenomenon.
The quest for self
determination, while a long term (200 plus years) determined aim by many, leads
to hostilities playing havoc with the civilian population.
Mindanao:
o
Has a major percentage of Philippines
natural resources
o
Is the major source of food, and
o
Is perceived as an integral part of
Philippines.
There is some
mistrust between Christian and Muslim through conflict-based happenings, though
everywhere we went, both Christians and Muslims reiterated the theme of
inter-religious harmony. In many contexts the team visited, this harmony was
self-evident. A case in point was experiencing the outdoor preparation for a
shared communal evening meal in a rice-growing Situ – the setting was idyllic
in the extreme.
9. WHAT, IF ANY, ARE THE ANTICIPATED
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DISASTER AREA?
There is a
pervading concern that redo could retrigger conflict.
The peace process
talks are proceeding with international observers – many from Muslim countries.
A process is in
place in the Pikit and wider regions to investigate breaches of the peace
process and impose penalties for a breach.
Kidnapping for
cash by ‘criminal’ elements continues (e.g., the pentagon gang).
10. HAS ANY POPULATION MOVEMENTS HAPPENED AS A
RESULT OF THE DISASTER? ARE ANY EXPECTED TO HAPPEN? WHAT EFFECTS ARE THESE, OR
FUTURE MOVEMENTS HAVING ON WELLBEING?
Yes 40,000
evacuees (internally displaced people) during a recent conflict with 160,000 evacuees
in the surround areas. Most of these people return home after hostilities
cease. Some people have elected to stay with family and friends away from their
home area. Some families have not returned to their mixed communities, choosing
instead to move to a ‘same religion’ community. The presence and maintenance of
‘mixed religion’ Situs with harmonious relations contributes to the peace
process. This move to same religion communities is seen as a retrograde step by
many.
11. WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE BEEN, AND ARE BEING
VIOLATED?
The right to quiet
habitation together in their place is being violated. Some instances of rape
are reported.
12. WHAT IS THE SECURITY SITUATION? WHAT KINDS
OF, AND WHAT DEGREE OF VIOLENCE IS OCCURRING, IF ANY?
1. Regular military
checkpoints; take care not to have small groups of females travelling alone as
there was an incident of undisciplined conduct at a military checkpoint
threatening rape or worse to a female external NGO member a few weeks before field
trip.
2. Community security
patrols.
3. International
monitoring of peace process
4. Occasional
redo-based killing
5. Some stock
stealing in outlying areas
Specifying
the Affected Populations
Refer local NGOs
on the following Questions
1) Provide estimates
of population by age, gender, and vulnerability within each of the following:
a) Refugees, IDP,
existence of old refugee groups/displaced populations (if this is a protracted
disaster) returnees, non-displaced disaster-affected populations, others.
(1) Single mothers
Not known
(2) Raped
Not known
(3) Pregnant through
rape
Not known
(4) Survivors of torture
No reported
incidence
(5) Survivors of
sexual violence
Not known
(6) Orphans,
unaccompanied minors, and homeless unaccompanied children
Not known
(7) Children /
adolescent heads of household
Not known
(8) Demobilized and
escaping child soldiers, ex-soldiers, active soldiers, ex-"freedom
fighters"
Some reported use
of child soldiers by MILF – no knowledge of the whereabouts of these child soldiers;
incidents where bombs set by child soldiers have killed Philippines military
(9)
Widows
Not known
(10) Physically
disabled and developmentally delayed, Elderly, Chronically mentally ill: with
families in institutions, or in other places, Others
Not known
Further specifying
of the above may usefully be carried out.
2) Provide an
approximate map of the locations and estimated numbers of various types of the
affected populations?
(Map)
3) What is the
location and number of those living with relatives, and local people in rural
and urban areas?
Not known -
further specifying of the above may usefully be carried out.
4) What is the
average family size?
Typically 5 to 7
5) What is the ethnic
composition of the affected population(s)?
Christian and Muslin
majority - a few Lumad families; UN-INMA was briefed by very well educated two
Lumad people from a University in the Region.
6) What are their
places of origin?
Some of the older
Christian farming people moved to the area 50-60 years ago from Northern
Philippines, and joined Muslim farming communities. Others have always lived in
the local region
7) What are the
locations of the affected populations:
a) in the
countryside, transit centres, camps, besieged villages, towns
Currently living
in their Situs - local NGO’s would provide a map and details regarding
locations of evacuation centres and besieged civilians, houses and Situs in an
emergency context.
8) Provide a picture
of special needs groups needing support, for example:
a) Orphans and unaccompanied
children
b) People who are
incapable of self-care
c) Women who have
been raped
d) Escaped/demobilized
child soldiers
Not known -
further specifying of the above may be usefully carried out.
9) Identify and rank
the causes of mortality and morbidity among the affected local populations.
Not known -
further specifying of the above may usefully be carried out.
10) Identify the
traumatic nature of the affected local population’s experience.
With 6,000 people
squeezed into a school playground, typically, people have less than a square
metre of space. One has to stay on this space 24 hours a day for perhaps 7
months. One has to stay low in crawling to the school perimeter to use pit
toilets. The rice farmer men typically take their hoes to the evacuation centre
and use these to make a system of drains so the ground does not get muddy when
it rains. They also use the sharp edge to cut saplings and make what look like
beach umbrellas to shade their families from the very hot sun. This physical
work helps discharge an awful emotional combination of extreme anger at the
outbreak of fighting combined with a complete helplessness to do anything about
it. (This was shared during a discussion with a Muslim men’s group (16 men) in
a rice growing situ.) Armed conflict including mortar fire, high powered
automatic weapons, helicopter and plane-based weaponry was being used sometimes
only 750 metres away from evacuation centres and occasionally closer. The noise
and ground vibration was reported as being terrifying. One elderly Imam said
with great emotion that he woke up crying every morning and he went to sleep
crying. All around him women and children were crying. Many times during the
stay in the evacuation centres all the bodies would leave the ground when heavy
munitions would hit too close. One observer said that he saw children very
quickly adapting to this abnormality as the new ‘normal’. He saw children
terrified by helicopters spewing flaming rounds of fire – then a few days later
the same children would wave to them. While adaptive, this is at the same time
a pathological context for the children to be caught up in.
Takepan Primary
School used as evacuation centre
Above is a photo
of the Takepan Primary School. It is the set of buildings below the road. We
engaged with the whole school population in the area between the central building
and the road. We then divided into three groups and moved to the playground at
the rear of the school. On our first two nights in the Region we held a meeting
under lights on the front porch of the building opposite the school in the
largest building beside a car park. The military strongly advised us never to
do this again as we would be targets for harassment or worse. On the next night
we met outside one of the homes in the dark at the rear of the school amongst
the trees.
Photo of
surrounding rice growing Situs
The above photo
shows the rice growing areas and other small farms and the Takepan Primary
School evacuation centre (where the three coloured lines come together). The
people from the farming areas to the right of the photo flee to the Takepan
High School down the road towards Pikit a few 100 metres. The local people of
the area young and old are experienced in finding the best way to the
evacuation centre in the moment-to-moment changing context when war breaks out.
11) Is there any data
already being collected, and distributed, including up-to-date information on
the security situation, human rights violations, and other problems having, or
likely to have, an impact on wellness?
Yes. Refer
Secretariat and the NGOs – research has been done that was not available to our
team including research identifying at-risk populations.
1) What were the
wellness levels like before the disaster?
Because of the recurring
conflict, similar to now
2) What past and
ongoing exposure is there to traumatic events and violence?
Repeated conflict, with some adaptive
behaviours having problematic consequences
3) How sudden was any
move, if any?
Generally, the
farming communities around Pikit have short notice of impending hostilities
with most making it in time to the evacuation centres. Some get caught in the
cross-fire.
4) When and how did
displaced people and refugees arrive in their present locations?
Most have returned
to their farms and homes in their Situs after the last conflict ended early in
2014. Some are still with families in Cotabato and other places.
5) What have they
gone through?
a) Killings,
executions, having missing family and friends?
·
Extreme hardships in the evacuation
centres may include food shortages
·
Lack of potable water, especially for
washing following toilet use (both a fundamental and religious aspect of their
way of life norms)
·
Illness, including dysentery and diarrhoea
·
Initial lack of shelter – 16 men from one
Situ took up to 5 months to erect 53 ‘bunkers’ (single pole with woven reeds on
top similar to a beach umbrella) to shelter each of their families (with
psychosocial payoff in terms of feeling good about providing for families
·
Loss of farm animals, loss of crop and
crop seed
·
Destruction/damage to homes
6) What of any of the
following has taken place? Is taking place?
a) Domestic violence,
including child abuse
b) Sexual violence
against adults and/or children
c) Breakdown of traditional
family roles and support networks
d) People’s loss of
their future with family and friends following deaths of close ones.
e) Harassment and
violence against whole or sub-groups of populations, e.g., against children,
women, or other groups?
f) Epidemics with and
without deaths
g) Abduction
Re (a) to (g)
Check with local NGOs – heard nothing about any of these
h) Disruption of status (e.g.,
economic decline, loss of power in the community)
Disruption of
farming cycles causing economic hardship. Some desire to evolve a local farming
cooperative. Some reports of destructive consequences of combining political
roles and being members of cooperative boards of management. Some suggested
including rules in the setting up and incorporating of farming cooperatives to
the effect that any board member must not run for political office for say at
least four years following ceasing being a member of a cooperative board, and
any person holding political office must not run for a position on a
cooperative board for four years. Any person violating these rules to be
automatically removed from office and ineligible to hold office for eight
years.
i) Torture
Check with local
NGOs – heard nothing
j) Bombing, armed
attacks, artillery shelling, mining, etc
All indirectly
effected (nearby hostilities); some locals (how many) caught in the cross fire
k) Deprivation of
food/water
Check with local
NGOs – heard reports of food shortages and some reports of Philippine army
blocking necessary food supplies from getting to the evacuation centres – fear
of food being accessed by enemy – this needs cross-checking with others
(Layson, 2003, In War, the Real Enemy is War Itself). We understand that using
deprivation of food as a military strategy is banned by international
agreements. There were water shortages in some centres.
l) Separation from
family
Instances of
separation from family creating massive anxiety in children with some children
in post-conflict settings refusing to go to school and wanting to stay with
their mother for fear they will never see them again
m) People being
forced to commit violence against members of their own family, community, or
other people
Check with local
NGOs – heard no report of this
n) Disruption to
important cultural and social rituals; to family and community structures
Disruption of the
normal cycle of farming and community life. Inability (for some) to attend
normal places of worship while in evacuation centres
o) Imprisonment,
detention in re-education/ concentration camps and other kinds of settings
Check with local
NGOs – heard no report of this
p) Ethnic, political,
and religious disputes
Check with local
NGOs – sense there was some unrest in evacuation centres from exacerbating
factors – typically, quickly mediated by existing community frameworks – who
were the peacemakers?
q) Lack of privacy
Reported as a
continuing issue (especially for women) given cramped out-door quarters in
evacuation centres
r) Extortion
Ongoing kidnap for
ransom - though less around Pikit at the moment
Actions Addressing Wellness Needs
1) How do people
understand and respond to violence and suffering?
Women tend to
speak of care, comforting and nurturing, prayer, and storytelling. Men tend to speak
of practical action in caring for family – returning to check farm and
livestock, working the farm on day-visits from evacuation centres when safe to
do so; building bunkers (shelters) for their families; also digging a system of
drains in the evacuation centres with their rice work hoes (10 inch square
metal head with sharp blade on one side and rake type prongs along the opposite
side). As rice farmers they are naturally good at simple water flow
engineering. Geo-emotional enabling spaces.
This suggest that
psychosocial support may be take account of these gender differences – using
storytelling, and nurturing themes with women and practical work as wellness
healing with the men – e.g., feeling calmer, energised and more relaxed after
digging a ditch.
UN-INMA introduced
the theme of whether they use physical activity to calm down when they get
angry annoyed etc in peace time. The locals recognised that they were helped to
feel better by hard physical work in the evacuation centre, though they had not
used this process in peace time. They said that they would use this process in
the future.
2) Give a feel for
how communities, families, friendship networks and people among the various
peoples affected respond to the consequences of the disaster.
We were left with
a strong sense that the various sections
of the local communities are very experienced in self and mutual care. They
evidenced considerable psychosocial resources and resilience. It is recommend that international aid
bodies support and complement these local ways and do nothing that undermines
or replaces them.
3) What are the local
ways people use to support themselves and each other?
They endeavour to
stay in the family unit and with other families from the same situ at the
evacuation centre. Everyone knows that it is virtually impossible to safely
move between evacuation centres, so every endeavour is made for families and
communities to get to the same evacuation
centre. Young and old have experience in recognising when hostilities break out.
Everyone knows what to do; for example, the steps to take to maximise the
chance that livestock will still be there when hostilities cease – especially
expensive important animals like water buffalo. Whether to make for the
evacuation centre or move away from the centre to assist the elderly and sick
in their Situ to get to the evacuation centre. They know how to read the sounds
of hostilities, and from this, choose the best way to the centre. They all know
the networks of pathways through the flooded rice fields – typically linked
rectangular grids. Men engage in mutual-help in constructing family shelters at
the evacuation centre. These community-based social actions support and sustain
community cohesion and support. Drainage is a theme conducive to coherence in
the men. Women staying close together with children in close proximity – thus
creating the context of being very close together sharing unfolding experience
with familiars – children surrounded by familiar faces – normal Situ social
exchange concentrated – therapeutic community - may be likened, in some senses,
to marathon encounter groups of the Seventies in Big Sur California – embodying
understandings of how to live in close community life as crowd and audience to
each others’ pain and grief –– people sharing experience of reconstituting
their reality in this confined space – with what experiential learning? (Refer
Chapter Eight in Fraser House Big
Group).There is potential for bonding to emerge from these
intense shared encounters. The experience from another context is germane –
people from fire affected areas in Victoria, Australia suffering the death and
injury of family and friends and massive loss of property and way of life,
speak of by far the best psychosocial-emotional support they receive coming
from fellow fire-affected people.
4) Do the people
affected ask for help or for psychological support from the other locals when they
need it? If yes, how are these requests for help seen by their community? How do the locals respond to these requests?
Check with local
NGOs – Within the comments in 3 above, heard no report of this – rather sense
that people tend to not talk about it if they feel awful.
5) Who have you
identified who are:
a) natural nurturers
and carers
A list of these
with contact details was attached with this report to the Secretariat (not
included in this copy).
Given a potential
at-high risk population of around 8,000 (the exact numbers are at this stage
hard to determine), providing psychosocial support to this many people would
stretch available resources beyond capacity. Having the local NGOs supported in
tapping into and enriching these local natural nurturer networks may be the
only way to support 8000 at risk people. Refer E DeCastro)
After leaving
Pikit found out that Ernie Cloma from PETA identified natural nurturers among
the teaching staff of both high and elementary schools in the Pikit region when
he was engaged by one of the local NGO to run theatre arts workshops (with a
peacehealing and psychosocial support focus for teachers and youth some months
ago.) Perhaps these teachers may be identified and approached to give feedback
on:
·
Their experience of using theatre arts
·
The adaptations they have made
·
The outcomes they have been getting
·
Any youths with psychosocial dysfunction
they have identified
·
If they have not used theatre arts, what
factors would have contributed to this?
·
What additional experience in the
processes would they welcome, if any?
Ernie worked in
the two schools in Takepan where our team also engaged in similar theatre arts.
Regrettably, the NGO supporting our team (while they knew of Ernie’s work teed
up by another NGO) did not inform us of
this work by Ernie. This meant we missed an opportunity to follow up
Ernie’s work with the local teachers. We also missed a golden opportunity when
we did not arrange to have the teachers witness and potentially learning from
our engaging with the children in cultural healing artistry. That was a major failure.
One of the local NGOs (refer Secretariat) have trained many youth
volunteers in Mindanao:
158
youth volunteers with 142 completing the course – of these 72 eventual stayed
on to regularly conduct play therapy sessions among children in their
neighbourhood
18
day-care centres
29
elementary school teachers from six schools
They
can advise how many of these were in the Pikit region. Note that this
information was not conveyed in our Manilla briefing. If it was, we could have
followed this up in the Pikit municipality. Yet another lost opportunity!
These volunteers regularly conducted play therapy sessions among
children in their neighbourhood. Ernie Cloma was used for creating action
resources for this project. Had we been briefed before being sent we could
have perhaps identified these volunteers in the local region and obtained
feedback and worked with them in capacity building. Another major failure!
One
of our team was mentored by Ernie and trained at PETA. Presumably he knew of
Ernie’s involvement in the Pikit region and never mentioned this before or
during the trip. This PETA person, while experienced in cultural healing
action, was not at the Tagaytay Pre-test and not familiar with the SEA-EPSN
resources, guidelines and Proforma, was not familiar with self-help and mutual
help processes and unfamiliar with Rapid Assessment. Another missed
opportunity!
b) Nodal (key
linkers) people in these networks
The priest in the
main Catholic Church in Pikit is a key nodal networker
6) How can these be
contacted?
Refer Pikit priest
and local NGOs.
7) Are there any
support or self-help groups within the refugee community and or host support groups?
(For example, among women, children, adolescents, adults, elderly, among the
disabled, or between women and men).
Each Situ tended to be its own mutual-help group. The priest of
the Pikit Catholic Church and the Imams and some others were nodal networkers. The three social workers with the Pikit local
government also link informal self-help groups though we did not have
opportunity to link with these.
8) What resources,
coping skills and behaviour strengthening is unfolding at personal and
community levels relating to restoring wellness?
The priest of the Pikit Catholic Church’s
volunteer group has regular reunions for strengthening their network using
structured experiences and hypothetical enactments; for example, a group
challenge involving cooperation for success shown below.
With all holding
strings attached to pencil everyone has to cooperate closely to place the
pencil in the bottle
Team members passed
on healing ways to around eleven of that priest’s group (including the priest),
including cultural healing artistry processes (by PETA member of the Team).
Healing ways were explored with a men’s group at a Situ where Muslim people
were in the majority. A woman’s discussion and storytelling group was also
conducted in the same Situ.
9) What security
concerns are there, if any, about releasing these people’s names and contact
details?
There appears to
be no current security concerns about releasing names.
10) Specify the
healing ways if any, that are used by the people affected:
a) Samples:
Widely used and
useful
ii) Body approaches
Tend to be used:
o
For example, by men digging ditches and
erecting bunkers.
o
By women attending to food preparation,
washing and other daily chores, and children playing chasey, thong based games
and the like – it seems that there is little consciousness that these everyday
bodily activities may have a normalising effect on psychosocial wellbeing and
making this known may not add very much.
iii) Group and
community approaches
In Pikit, as is
common throughout the Philippines, whenever psycho-emotional strife occurs, the
place to start healing in this culture is with the whole community. Once community healing is well under
way then smaller group healing occurs within families and friends. Then
individual and interpersonal healing occurs. We have already noted the use of
group and community approaches based on families and Situs acting in concert.
Any outside international Aid organisation
coming in with expert service delivery people trained and experienced only in ‘individual treatment’, will inevitably engaged in cultural imposition
and actions that have the seeds to undermine and collapse local way. This
occurred in the Mt Pinatubo eruption where local people were well underway with
effective whole-of-community healing when psychologists from America and
Denmark wanted to treat people one by one. The locals refused to engage with
the visitors. Typically claiming to offer psycho-social support, international aid professionals often have little or no experience in the social
aspect of the psychosocial and
little or no understanding of highly effective local cultural healing ways that
are fully consistent with the very latest neuro-psycho-biological
understandings of the integrated function of mindbody (refer Flexibility and
Habit)
iv) Resumption of
everyday life routines as normalizing processes
This is pervasively apparent in the region
and a potent normalizing process
v) Ceremonies and
Rituals
We saw and heard
of preparations for ceremonies and festivals. One was the celebration of
Foundation day. 3,500 people were expected for the Foundation Day celebrations
at Takepan with people preparing food for shared feasts and arranged music,
dance and other festivities. Another key event is the upcoming celebrations
linking Seven Barangays in the Pikit region in a zone of peace. Other actions
have centred on children being framed as ‘children of peace.’ While it may not
be in the reader’s experience, these festivals are very complex integrated and integrating
processes holding forth promise for transforming psycho-socially. Integrating
as in the original meaning of ‘to heal’, namely, to make whole again. Within
the festival milieu, Natural nurturers may meet and form friendships with
other natural nurturers; healer
networks may emerge (Refer sociograms),
be strengthened and extended. People may have embodied experience of
being well together with others. Liminal
states may be generated. Bodyminds
may undergo transformation. Cultural
Wellbeing artistry:
(1) Art
(2) Dance
(3) Singing
(4) Puppetry
(5) Music
(6) Drumming
(7) Others
Check with NGOs –
heard many of the above to be incorporated in the above festivals and celebrations;
the above seven ways have all being used in Ernie Cloma’s work.
11) How do the local
peoples’ resilience, resourcefulness and competency manifest among the people
by gender?
a) Children
·
In their spontaneity, engrossment,
enchantment and cooperative gentle joy in play (using commonly found things).
Children have 100’s of games and often make up new games on the spot
·
In their work ethic in self-organising
cooperating in the care of their school environment – weeding, floor washing,
sweeping, rubbish collecting and the like (the school has no janitor)
·
In the Region it is often observing the
spontaneous play of children that is the impetus for healing in older people;
the children as healing catalysts
b) Adolescents and
Young adults
·
In their work ethic in self-organising
cooperating in the care of their school environment – weeding, sweeping,
rubbish collecting and the like
·
In their poised, respectful relating with
our visiting team members
·
In the Takepan high school youths joyous
spontaneous engagement in creating music, song and dance with a sub-group of
our team; their verve was palpable
c) Adults
The functional
emotional expressivity of the men in the Muslim men’s group where the merging
connecting with feelings of resentment, anger, helplessness, and grief was
explored through their storytelling and sharing of experience
d) Elderly and Old
People
Seeing the elderly
as active participants and audience in Situ meetings and discussion, engaging
in Situ chores (e.g. sweeping and cutting)
12) What are the local
ways that work in supporting people following disasters?
To reiterate,
mutual community action for wellness in everyday life
13) What are the local
ways they have used successfully in the past that they are not using for this disaster?
If some ways are specified, may any of these be fitting this time, or fitting
if adapted?
Check with the
Pikit priest, social worker linked healer networks and NGOs
14) What are the
everyday life community, village and/or clan/tribal processes and everyday
simple actions that support the re-constituting of their way of life in
wellness together? Which ones of these have been re-constituted? What others
could be re-constituted?
All of the minutia
of communal Situ and farm based life; the vibrancy of the Pikit market (watch
team safety in tight crowded places such as alleyways – have exit strategy).
Our was a medium size group of young Muslim women who were mingling in the
crowd unnoticed who suddenly surrounded us on a prearranged signal (a particular
flick of a scarf) and the circle of Muslim men parted to let us through to our
small bus.
15) Who are other
psychosocial resource people within these affected communities? For example,
teachers, social workers, traditional healers, women's associations, community
leaders, and external agencies?
(See above)
16) Who are other
local psychosocial resource people outside these communities who would be
acceptable to them; for example, skilled people from universities and religious
groups, local, nearby provinces and national NGOs?
Ernie Cloma and
his PETA associates are valuable Manila-based Pinoy resource people. The
SEA-EPSN network, UP-CIDS and the UP Psychology Department also has a number of
resource people – refer Secretariat.
17) What other
community processes, associations, networks and other social processes existed
before the emergency?
Refer 16 above
18) What community
psychiatrist, psychologists, trauma counsellors, and other mental health personnel
and actual/potential paraprofessional people are available locally or in nearby
areas who are acceptable to the local people?
Refer local Pikit
priest and NGOs.
19) What is the
general resiliency and functioning of the community?
There seem to be very good resilience.
Community life at the various levels - Situ, Barangay and local Pikit municipal
government seems alive and well. Representatives of every Situ and group
we visited except the two schools (because of previous commitment) were present
at a debriefing and feedback session about our visit held at the Takepan
Barangay Community Hall (the next building away from the road from where we met
the first two nights – opposite the Secondary School. The local women and men
each gave feedback and the team gave feedback on our observations. They said
there was not a dry eye in the rice fields because of feelings of joy flowing
from the special sounds of joy coming from our engaging with the primary school
children. This is resonant with Cambodian Cambokids and Fokkupers (Timor Leste)
experience where the healing (to make whole again) power of children’s play was
working its integral healing on adolescents and adults.
International Aid
organisations have an excellent resource on resilience in the work of Professor
Violetta Bautista and her colleagues (refer Resilience).
20) Do the communities
show cohesion and solidarity? If not,
what are the impediments? If so, how is it manifest? How may impediments be removed
and issues resolved?
Yes, they do show
both cohesion and solidarity. It is manifest in the obvious pride and passion
with which they talk about Christian-Muslim cooperation in the Situs.
Maintenance of peace between MILF and the Philippine armed forces and the
permanent cessation of redo would assist cohesion and solidarity.
Wellness Factors Related to the Various
Domains
Wellness Factors Related to Basic Survival and Needs
1) Presence of ‘Peace
Sanctuaries’, ‘humanitarian corridors’ and ‘windows of peace’ If they are not
present, what scope is there for them being established?
As stated, these
are being evolved including Children for Peace. Ernie Cloma, has taken some
adolescents from the Region to Manila to participate in a Peace Theatre Cultural Healing
Action Project with at-risk gang member adolescents from Manila and
elsewhere - and they publicly presented their output to acclaim, a fine example
of the social transforming potency of cultural healing artistry. Ernie had both
the Pikit and Manila adolescents work-shopping the development of their theatre
performance together. Manila gang members afterwards spoke of the experience of
the Pikit adolescents’ girlfriends being caught in crossfire mirroring where
they were heading if they did not stop using automatic weapons.
2) Presence of ready
access for support (airports, ports, rivers, roads, tracks)
Main Highway as a
central feature; in time of war this highway is the only access into the Pikit area and it is the focus of fighting.
This has to be considered if war outbreak is imminent or happens while in the
field.
3) What effect has
climate had on the affected people?
Occasional flash
flooding and drought add to the locals’ burdens. Flash flooding has affected
some evacuation centres. On one occasion, the evacuation centre was flooded
when the local situ people arrived and women were exhausted when NGO support
people arrive with food and water as the locals had been standing in waist-deep
water for 48 hours holding children when aid first arrived. If they fell asleep
their babies and young children would have drowned. Knowing the implications of
rain in the local context, the NGOs adapted their eclectic process so that this
flooded evacuation centre was the first visited. The head of one of the Pikit
NGOs had spoken at the Tagaytay Gathering of the eclectic nature of their Pikit
processes, where the moment-to-moment context on the ground determines what
they do next and how they do it. Any predetermined step-by-step fixed process
(set within a ten by ten excel spreadsheet) would inevitably end in a very
administratively neat profoundly inadequate mess, for example, a lot of drowned
babies and children and bereaved mothers, fathers, friends and distraught
communities.
4) Detail security,
nature, amount and continuity of food supply; food sources and supplies, recent
food distributions, and future food needs and availability
Currently there is
a cessation of hostilities. Food is available and much of it is locally grown
(rice the main local crop), community and family vegetable plots, chickens and
the like.
The Pikit Catholic
Church group seems to have a transparent accountable food distribution system.
The Pikit priest was prepared to make strong requests for cooperation by the
army to allow free access of food deliveries. He would also put his life at
risk to take on specific humanitarian actions. For example, under white flag
going and picking up a couple hiding by the roadside who had not made it to the
evacuation centre.
5) Availability and
quality of clothing, bedding and shelter
Check local NGOs
6) Adequacy of
sanitation
Some questions were
raised – especially adequacy of water for cleansing following visits to
toilets. Difficulties women had regarding personal hygiene discussed in Muslim
women’s group.
7) Detail the
availability of transport, fuel, communication, and other logistic necessities
for wellness in the affected area
Check with NGOs
8) Morbidity, death
rates, and causes (by age and gender).
Check with NGOs
9) Presence or
likelihood of Infectious disease
Understand that
there are none at present – check with NGOs
10) Issues created by
mosquitoes and other pests and illness sources
Few mosquitoes at
present though a sleeping net is advisable
11) What sources of
harm continue to exist?
Rogue elements,
kidnapping, and possibility of breakdown of the peace talks; redo related
strife.
12) What is the supply
and quality of water?
Local spring water
seems good. As we were staying with host families we bought bottled water for
our needs at Cotabato
13) Other basic
survival needs in order of priority
·
Phone numbers of local NGO contact people
·
Food,
·
Torch, and matches to make brush fire
torch if caught outside
·
Appropriate Evacuation Plan that everyone in the team knows
·
·
Care re Cobras (on lawns near houses)
·
Travel with known locals organised by the
NGOs or the Pikit priest, especially in Pikit Market
·
The Pikit priest is a good entry point to
first engaging with the military
Wellness Factors Related to Economic Aspects
1) What economic
structures did they have? What kinds of production and handling of resources at
family, district, camp, and country regional levels? How may these be improved
or re-constituted?
Discuss with local
NGO
2) Is there unequal
distribution of resources and benefits by:
a) ethnic, political,
or other kind of grouping
Steps are taken to
ensure actual and perceived equality as this can be a major source of strife.
3) If so, how may
these matters been improved?
Processes are
being refined in talks between the local government social workers and the
Pikit priest’s group and others.
Wellness Factors Related to Education
1. Are there teachers
among the affected communities?
Yes. The
elementary school – indicative of the region – is well below national averages
in basic competency levels. Short term funding is allowing catch-up classes on a
Saturday morning for some months. The schools lack teaching resources suitable
for Islamic and Lumad culture.
2. If so, how are
they being used? How could they be better used?
Normal roles.
There was evidence that the curriculum and resources for the year ten Arts and
Community Development subject were culturally inappropriate for rural
tri-people communities. Culture and locality specific resources could be
developed (a job for PETA – Ernie Cloma’s group?).
3.
Specify any formal or informal educational
activities, including extracurricular ones that exist among
a. the affected
people
b. refugees
c. displaced
communities
d. war-affected
communities
The normal school
curriculum is functioning
4. If education is
taking place, how adequate is it?
Suspect the whole curriculum
could be checked for cultural and intercultural appropriateness and to
determine how well it prepares children for local life and job opportunities
Wellness Factors relating to Habitat
1) What has been the effect on housing and
habitat?
Some housing destroyed and replaced. One
family who had experienced substantial damage to their concrete home a number
of times elected to destroy it and build a home from local bush materials.
There’s a gaping hole in one school
building – an ongoing reminder of shelling.
Given that the children had experienced
the stress of repeated hostilities sitting on the playground of their primary
school it was a joy to see them so engrossed in joyous play when we were
engaging with them on the same ground
– the meaning reframing of the
geo-spatial. The playground reverts to an enabling environment in times of
peace . It was the most secure place in time of conflict
Cultural, Ethnic, Religious, Political and
Socio-Economic Issues
1) What is the social
structure - clans, tribe, and ethnicity of the affected people?
Discuss with local
NGOs.
2) Give a feel for
the culture, lore, way of life, religion, social organization and political
organization of the affected peoples and communities.
Refer the Secretariat’s
accompanying introductory notes on the Pikit – Cotabato Region. Pikit is the
market town of the Region. There is another market town 18 minutes back along
the road from Takepan towards Cotabato.
Takepan is about a 10 minute drive from Pikit towards Cotabato. Takepan
has two schools and a Hall and small council room. There are no local shops.
Situs are along the road with some on small unmade side roads or walking paths.
A Situ we approached by path was around 2 kilometres off the road. The Situ life
revolves around farming. Some one metre long motorised belt driven ‘tractors’
are used for haulage. Water buffalo are used for ploughing. Local mosques are
small simple structures – the ones seen were concrete block. Markets are
typical of those in
3) Is the affected
people(s) culture matrilineal or patrilineal?
Check with the
local NGOs.
4) What is/are the
religion/s of the affected people? What are the roles of priests, traditional
healers, kings, and other community ‘authorities’?
Most Christians
are catholic with some other denominations present. Visiting Aid groups
belonging to Evangelising Christian denominations have triggered unrest among
Muslims in the past.
Religious leaders
are highly respected and play a vital integrating role, especially during
conflict. People use traditional healers. The social work service providers in
Pikit play a potent coordinating role. Barangay leaders have influence. One
Muslim community visited spoke with passion about national politics.
5) What traditions,
rituals or social interactions sanctions/taboos about specific topics exist -
such as deaths, mourning, burial, acts of revenge, rape, justice and the like?
Refer local NGO.
6) Give a brief
outline of the spiritual and religious aspects of affected people? Do any of
these create conflict between and among the affected people and their host
communities?
There was
considerable evidence of respect for religious diversity and harmony at the
interfamily level in mixed religion Situs.
7) How do people
respond to death, burial, bereavement and loss?
How do they support their own wellness in these contexts?
Refer local NGOs.
8) In the current
context, are there any situations in which traditions and rituals cannot be
practised? (For example: for the children born as a result of rape, for the
missing, for those who did not receive a traditional burial? What if anything, can be done about this?
Refer local NGOs.
9) Who, if any, are
emerging as community leaders? What kinds of leaders are there – peaceable ones
such as carers and nurturers; political, ethnic, religious, ex-freedom
fighters, ex-military?
The Community
Leader at Takepan Barangay was ex-military. His focus was peace and
agricultural strengthening.
10) How is the
peoples’ culture supporting their responding to the consequences of the
disaster at individual, family and community levels?
Their culture (as
in ‘way of life’) revolves around close similar dwellings, everyone knowing
everyone, shared local understandings and knowings, shared norms, and mutual
cooperation and support. Many aspects of
situ life are inherently supportive of psychosocial wellbeing and return to
wellbeing following conflict.
11) What social
structure and self-organization is emerging within the affected communities?
One based on shared
knowings and mutual cooperating.
12) What type of
social structures, governance and administration did the people have? For example, family and extended family
structures; religious and community structures, as well as civil and military
structures? How has the disaster affected these?
There are extended
family structures and closeness in the situs with inter-situ visiting. Situ
male leaders continued their leader role in the evacuation centres. Currently
the community typically gathers at familiar spots at twilight for mutual
conversational exchange, children play, farm animals mingle, a guitar is
played, a person washes children and self at the situ well spring pump, while
others wait and talk, children bring plastic bottles to fill to take back home.
Some members of our team experienced this delightful twilight everyday ritual
at one of the Situs. Children appear to respond quickly to adult requests to
help and we witnessed children get up before first light without being asked to
assist around the home – lighting the fire, cooking breakfast, cleaning and the
like.
13) What kinds of
emerging social groups, networks or associations, parties, etc. are there?
Refer local NGOs.
14) What ways are the
affected people using to resolve conflict and disagreement in their current
situation(s)?
Local peace-maker
people immediately respond to conflict and disagreement with mediation to prevent escalation. (Can
the peacemakers be identified?)
15) How are emotions
and thoughts expressed among the affected people? For example, fear, suspicion,
anger, sadness, grief and happiness?
During the
hostilities there would be mass crying, shaking, sobbing and outbursts of
sadness by adults and children alike at evacuation centres especially during
loud close bombardment and exchange of firepower. Research evidence suggests
shaking has functional value
16) How did/does the
affected people(s) treat and consider people with physical illness and
handicaps?
Check local NGOs.
17) How does the
culture and traditions of the affected people view psychosocial illness,
showing emotion and problems? Has this altered as a result of the
disaster/conflict?
While people
openly showed emotion during the conflict, people tend to not show emotion in
the post conflict period. People were open to sharing stories of their
experience in a factual and unemotional way. The Muslim men’s group did show
functionally strong emotion as appropriate to context. This scared NGO women
who intruded on the men’s group (inappropriately exercising presumed top down
prerogatives).
We sense that
women from a local NGO coming into this men’s group was a serious breach of
local protocols. These women reported being extremely disturbed by the men’s
anger. We repeat, the emotion was very appropriate to the context. The men’s
emotions were fully abated by the end of the men’s group, with the leader of
the village extending the highest respect in ritual farewell. The women
intruders were not in tune with the context and had no right to intrude. There
was no way that any man from our team was going to intrude unannounced into
their woman’s group being held at the same time and finishing before our group.
List of Sources Outside of the Affected People
Grassroots Organisations and Networks
1. Intercultural,
Indigenous and other networks of natural nurturers
Two Lumad men who
teach peace-studies at Notre Dame College are potential resource people (refer
Secretariat)
2. Indigenous women's
organizations and networks
3. Indigenous and
traditional healers
4. Indigenous
organizations and networks
5. Local Grassroots
women's health networks
6. Local grassroots
community based organizations
7. Local Religious
groups; spiritual, community and religious leaders, and the social outreach of
these groups
8. Women's groups and
networks
9. Women's, youth,
disabled, minority groups or associations,
Refer local NGOs re the above. (It is sensed that in the NGO people
‘controlling their turf’ we were not referred to thse groups!)
Non-state
Entities
1. Local NGOs
2. Representatives of
universities, agencies, associations, services - cultural anthropologists,
sociologists, if any
3. In-country UN
agencies, if any
4. NGOs -
international, regional
5. Health and mental
health professionals and relevant associations if any
Refer local NGOs - especially for a list of international aid bodies that
have been involved during past conflicts and for a briefing about how they
fitted in with local support action and cultural way.
Inter-sectoral Sources
1. Physical health
services
2. Specialized mental
health services
3. Rehabilitation
centres for physically disabled
4. Education:
a. primary and
secondary school teachers, professors at universities, post secondary
technical/vocational schools;
5. Cultural, youth,
sports, and social groups:
a. clan, village,
camp, and community leaders,
6. Representatives of
the elderly;
Refer local NGOs
re the above.
7. Pre-existing
social welfare and services and newly introduced activities for:
a. Families:
including family reunification, refugees, displaced, returnees, etc.
b. Women: widows,
survivors of torture/ rape, kidnapping, etc.
Check both with
local NGOs.
c. Children and
adolescents, including:
o Child and
adolescent peer support
Seems to be a
natural occurring process
o street children,
No immediate evidence
– refer local NGOs
o unaccompanied
minors,
No immediate
evidence – refer local NGOs
o child soldiers;
Refer local NGOs
o orphans,
Refer local NGOs
o children/adolescent
head of families
Refer local NGOs
8. Survivors of violence
(rape, torture, abducted) and former detainees/prisoners during conflicts and
their families, including released prisoners of war
Refer local NGOs
9. Police, army, and
other local or international security forces.
The Philippines
army has their own psycho-social support processes for combatants. Nothing was
found about MILF support processes.
There was evidence
that deaths of young Philippines Military soldiers (with only fragments to send
home) was emotionally devastating to comrades at arms. – especially, as the
death in one recent case was caused by a child soldier. The strong (withering)
message was tell the other side to stop using child soldiers!
Central and Regional National Authorities:
1. Ministry of Social
Welfare
2. Ministry of
Education
3. Ministry of Health
4. Other Ministries
relevant to unfolding context
5. District offices,
local refugee offices, local UN administration, etc.
6. Other local
regional, and national, administrative authorities;
7. Local/Regional security
authorities - these may well be vital for security issues
Refer local NGOs
Conclusions and Recommendations
1) What we can do to nurture the natural nurturers and
support any existing activities and networking that they are doing - names and
contact details?
Work closely with
the local NGOs. Explore their interest say in the sociograms re supporting, strengthening and evolving
informal natural nurturer networks and processes for sharing micro-experiences
supporting return to psycho-social wellbeing.
As noted
previously, a lot of work could be usefully done in consciousness raising among
the local NGOs relating to firstly, expanding and modifying their roles towards
evolving and supporting mutual help, and secondly, playing an interfacing role
between International Aid organisations and local mutual help networks. All of
this may be complementary to their existing service delivery role – for
example, ensuring daily supply of food and water reaches the evacuation
centres. As noted with a possible 8,000 people in the Pikit municipality
affected by psychosocial strife the NGOs have no possibility of supporting that
many people even if they had the experience to provide this type of support.
Expanding networks of networks of natural nurturers have well hold forth
promise of reaching 8,000. If 5 natural nurturers each find five others and
pass on their experience and this process is repeated four times there is
generated over 3,000 people available to
support the 8,000!
2) Existing
activities organized by the affected peoples themselves, their host community
and local and international agencies needing to be supported, maintained or
expanded.
One practical
example is a shared community vegetable garden project in one of the Situs.
The volunteer
Network linked to the Pikit Catholic Church – is it possible for this network
(providing food distribution and other services to be replicated with
volunteers focusing on psychosocial support?
3) Ways to prevent breakdown
of local support processes
The possibility of
regular sharing gathering celebrations with food brought to share allowing time
to share simple psychosocial support ways.
4) Recommendations of
immediate and longer term support of local wellness action by locals
Processes that
would gently, respectfully and ecologically identify those needing
psycho-social support:
a) Recommendations
for immediate and long-term support of the most vulnerable; possibly using
teachers trained by Ernie Cloma to assist other teachers to identify those at
risk psychosocially
Identify and
further support day care people and volunteers involved in NGO projects
b) Recommendations
for immediate and longer-term support for those with the most serious
psychosocial illness in the overall population.
A possible
starting place is to identify who they are in ways that do not further traumatise.
Symptom specification and diagnosis is not culturally appropriate.
Teachers are a
resource, given they have close daily contact and verbal exchange with
students. Another entry point is the local NGOs, the Catholic priest’s network
and their links to Situ ‘informal social grapevines’ of social exchange.
We recommend that there is no ‘labelling’ of
people as traumatised, or as having some ‘condition’ - rather a focus on them
experiencing experiences consistent with wellness – socio-processes and healing
artistry processes
c) Recommendations
for immediate and longer term local support networking capacity building
SEA-EPSN working
closely with the local NGOs as a conduit for passing on simple ways which work
into local informal structures.
4) Describe major
obstacles - constraints, risks, and assets for implementing the wellness
action.
What is the current level of inter-local
NGO exchange? Recall that our team received no briefing by an NGO about the
actions of the other two NGO’s in the Area - something that would have greatly
aided our team and increased the effectiveness of our time in Pikit.
For example we may
have linked with and learned from the teachers that Ernie Cloma had trained and
the volunteers working with the NGO who worked through day care centres,
schools and in outdoor places with the local youth.
Is Ernie seen as ‘belonging’ to one NGO.
Could he and other PETA people be usefully used by all NGOs? How open are these
local NGOs to fostering cooperation and coordination between the local NGOs and
fostering informal self-help and mutual-help?
With a number of
resource people available in the team, and the possibility of scheduling time
for sharing healing ways directly with the NGO who was arranging our hosting by
local people while we were in the area and unlikely to return, no sharing of
healing ways took place. What is this saying?
5) Recommendations in
priority of the most cost-effective external support and collaborations needed
to support locals engaged in enabling mutual support.
Having
·
SEA-EPSN
·
UP-CIDS
·
UP Clinical Psychology Section of Psychology
Department
·
PETA
Support local NGOs
capacity building
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
Local people in
the Pikit Municipality live a simple rural life in their Situs. At the same
time that their way of life is situated in their Situs, it has a very high level
of functional, integrated, and adaptive complexity.
Many families (as
many as 50) live very close together. At times they are both audience and crowd
to each other’s lives. (Compare Chapter Eight Fraser House Big Group) Everyone knows everyone else.
Virtually everything that happens is common knowledge. They share resources –
the well-spring, the vegetable gardens, the sounds of their roosters. They have
the shared experience of surviving being crowded together in evacuation centres
in states of high arousal. They have well-evolved ways of working out how to
live together. There way of life is resonant with residential therapeutic
communities.
Compare the
complexity of this social structure to a nuclear family of husband wife and two
children living with very little knowledge or contact with their neighbours.
The individuated nuclear social structure may have little scope for resolution
of wellbeing issues and little outside support. Each Situ we visited was a model
self-governing therapeutic community. The extremely complex situ structure
seems to hold massive potential and actual energy for being very adaptive as a
means of simply supporting, constituting and sustaining a way of life embracing
wellbeing.
We recommend that
no outside aid actions be implemented that are purporting to ‘improve’ their
way of life when actually they are corrupting and dismantling this simple
wellness sustaining complexity.
Post Emergency Situational Report on Community Psychosocial Resources, Resilience and
Wellness Processes
To the SEA-EPSN Network Secretariat
In which situation and country did you use
this resource?
Pikit, Cotabato 13 to 19 Nov 2004
Report Proforma
1)
Are there changes that could be made -
words to be:
a)
added
b)
modified
c)
deleted
Some redundancy - though leave questions
in for the time being as they may be useful in other contexts
2)
How can the format and sequencing be
changed to be more effective?
Note slight alterations to start of the
Form
Use the ‘Purposes’ and’ Framing of
SEA-EPSN Report’ and ‘Framing of Support Action as a standard preface on
Situation Reports
3)
What worked best about this Resource?
It acts as a memory jogger and aids and
focuses reflecting on the trip. The small bound plasticised waterproof format
was ideal.
4)
What if anything was cumbersome about the
resource?
Nothing
5)
What other suggestions do you have?
None
SEA-EPSN
NETWORK EMERGENCY KIT
1) Are there changes that could be made to
the Resource Kit - words to be:
a) added
b) modified
c) deleted
2) How can SEA-EPSN Emergency Kit be changed to be more
effective?
3) What worked best about this resource?
4) What if anything was cumbersome about the
resource?
5) What other suggestions do you have?
Refer separate Report.
SEA-EPSN
COURSE
From your experience on this field trip
how could the course be improved?
Add in practical learning that emerging
from this field trip
FOLLOW-ON SUPPORT INTERACTION
Discuss the issues in liaising with Follow-on Support
bodies and their interfacing with the locals.
What has emerged from this trip is the
comprehensive and effective ways the local people use to look after themselves.
They are not ‘helpless people who need others to do things for them’. They
certainly need support during crises. Unilateral action by outside Aid bodies
could easily create major hassles that could escalate the conflict.
Cooperating, convergence and complementarity are vital.
How may good aspects be replicated and poor aspects
resolved – for the current assignment?
Fuller briefing of team members about
local cultural nuances and things to do and avoid doing
Fuller briefing by ALL local NGOs before
the team leaves
Fuller briefing of all local NGOs relating
to our focus on:
o
Finding out about:
§ local psycho-social resources capacities
and resilience
§ Local capacity for mutual help
§ The presence of natural nurturers and
natural nurturer networks
o
Evolving and supporting these natural nurturer
networks
o
Providing co-learning opportunities to local NGOs
about:
§ Healing ways
§ Interfacing between International Aid
Organisations and local mutual-help action
For future assignments?
A major
weakness in our field process was that our team were not briefed prior to
coming by the other 2 NGOs in the Pikit area. A second weakness was that we did
not meet the local people from these other two NGOs in Pikit. Both these groups
have done and are doing vital work. For example, Ernie Cloma told UN-INMA after
our field trip that he had carried out workshops on the use of theatre arts for
psychosocial support with high and elementary school teachers throughout the
Pikit region including Takepan. We had been briefed previously by the NGO who
supported us in Pikit though we never connected that briefing with Pikit till
after our trip was finished. We could have identified the people that had been
involved in projects with these other two NGOs, received feedback on their use
of the ways, provided training and possibly had them identify traumatised
children. UN-INMA has received training theatre arts in Australia from 1994 to
1999 by Ernie and people trained by Ernie Cloma in Darwin, Australia in 1994. UN-INMA
had no meetings with any of the three NGOs people in Manila upon return from
the field trip – another opportunity lost. What other NGOs known to the
Secretariat and what other Secretariat people with experience in Pikit exist?
Not having these, if any, at the Manila briefing was also a massive lost
opportunity. Even though an extra-ordinary resource, it seems that Ernie has
not been used by each of the other two NGOs in Pikit. Is there scope for this?
UN-INMA PROCESS REVIEW - THE FUNCTIONING
OF THE SEA-EPSN TEAM DURING THE PIKIT, COTABATO, MINDANAU TRIP 13-19 NOVEMBER
2004
A Personal
Perspective
Given many
shortcomings in the Manila and the Pikit briefing processes and the selecting
of the team members, the Pikit SEA-EPSN team achieved its mission in admirable
fashion. A Report, from the UN-INMA member was available at lunch and at dinner
time every day in the field, and a final UN-INMA report was available within 12
hours of return to Manila.
Consistent with our purpose the team fostered
possibilities and opportunities for local people to mutually engage in their
own ways of being and acting together towards expressing and enjoying their own
rich integral wellness states - our shared moments at twilight in one of the
Situs is a perfect example. We respected community/self determination of their
own cultural and spiritual life ways.
Consistent with our mission, the UN-INMA team
member:
·
Provided psychosocial support to the
self-help and mutual-help actions of the people of Pikit in post emergency
conditions
·
Has written and passed to one of the field
team leaders personal observation journals
·
Has prepared situational report notes and
passed these to one of the field team leaders to prepare a synthesis team
report
·
Has pre-tested the SEA-EPSN Emergency
Response Guidelines, Resources and
Assessment Template and passed on observations to one of the field team leaders
to write a synthesis report
·
Has supported the local NGOs and CBOs
·
Has supported the creation of the UN-INMA
Situation Report and Synthesis Team Reports that may in turn be used to create
model Case Studies of Post Emergency Situation Reports for:
o Including in the
SEA-EPSN resources
o For distribution
among SEA-EPSN members
o Informing international
aid organisations intending to engage in the Pikit municipality
·
Has real-played, evolved and can report on
Emergency Team functioning in the field
·
Has assisted in preparing the UN-INMA
Situation Report based on the Proforma and Frameworks in the original Tagaytay Resources
·
Has assisted in writing this Revised
Fieldwork Process Review Report
All of the above
has taken place in a context wherein:
·
We were entering a
context with serious and ever present security issues
·
We only had five
days to complete our mission
·
We were given only a one and a half hour
briefing in Manila by only one of the three local Pikit NGOs
·
Two members (with service delivery
backgrounds) on the small team had not been present at Tagaytay and had little or no knowledge of or interest in self-help and mutual-help
·
Perhaps other team members and certainly
the local NGO supporting us also had little or no knowledge of or interest in
self-help and mutual-help
·
We had scant orientation to local cultural
protocols and security arrangements
·
We did not have an evacuation plan in
Pikit and we never created one. The assumption was presumably that we generally
knew each other’s whereabouts and our van driver would come and collect us if
it became necessary and prudent to get out quick to an evacuation centre or to
Cotabato – really a bit vague (being left to wait out in the countryside is
highly problematic given that a few months later the head of one of the NGOs
(not the one we were engaging with) was kidnapped and held for over six months
– refer above).
·
Some team members only received briefings
about the local Pikit context the day before we departed (UN-INMA included) and
some received no briefing; the PETA trained person brought and used his PETA
skills throughout his engaging in the field, though he had little or no
appreciation of all of the subtle nuances of supporting self-help and
mutual-help, nor experience in engaging in Rapid Assessment and hence was not
in tune with these been the central focus of the trip.
·
The local NGO people in Pikit had scant knowledge of the purpose and
nature of our visit when we arrived – they had virtually no prior briefing –
action scheduling was tentative as a consequence; they increasingly become
threatened by talk of supporting self-help and mutual-help perceiving this as a
threat to their local service delivery roles - they had no prior briefing on
this theme and how it may strengthen and enrich their role
·
We were being asked to explore open agenda,
informal, family/community psychosocial self-help and mutual-help, in contexts
where there is often ‘spontaneity appropriate to context’ (for example -
engaging in spontaneous chasey play with children at the Takepan Primary
School) – and all of this when some of our team members’ primary frameworks and
experience has been working within tightly controlled formal, fixed agendas,
that are time bound, preplanned, pre-scheduled in minute detail ‘service
delivery’, with spontaneity rigorously eliminated by professional experts using
clinical psychology’s diagnose, prescribe and treat methodologies (we do it for
you). Some in the team had no or little
experience of spontaneous healing games, theatre arts and other artistry and
attempted to derail engaging in this activity. The local NGO people
interpreted:
‘Being
Spontaneous’, that is, being in the
moment not knowing what was going to happen next
as:
Inherently
dangerous, not knowing what you are doing, and hence, being dangerously
incompetent.
A couple of the
field team as well as the local NGO people had little or no comprehension,
understanding or interest at all in:
o
self-help or mutual-help
o
natural nurturers or natural nurturer
networking
They only had
expert service delivery experience and interest. Two were only interested in
adapting the whole endeavour back into service delivery. One other played lip
service to mutual-help though backed the other two presumable for advantage.
Some team
stress emerged from team members acting in culturally inappropriate ways. This
may have been reduced by the team receiving comprehensive briefing about the
local culture in both written and oral form with scope to ask questions.
Ideally, we would have had cultural briefing after Tagaytay and before Pikit
especially relating to Pinoy sensing and sense-making relating to energy and
interacting energy bodies.
Some stress
was created by females from the NGO entering the men’s group in the Muslim
Education Centre at one of the Situs. The women expressed major discomfort from
just leaving the female energy and walking in on men of the Situ collectively
expressing extreme anger – very appropriate in the context of the men’s group.
Our understanding was the women and men’s groups were to be conducted completely
separately. This needs to be specified in future field trips and strictly enforced. The female
members of the team had not been party to the his-story of the unfolding
context in the men’s group. The women would have objected strongly to sudden
male intrusion in women’s business. The same applies in men’s business. When it
comes to women’s business and men’s business in indigenous fora that UN-INMA is
linked to, these boundaries are never, NEVER crossed. Future field trips
should have this as a no-negotiable rule.
Some stress was
inevitably going to emerge from being in the emergency context:
One of the people
from the local hosting NGO described herself as being in constant concern for
the visiting team’s safety.
One of the team leaders
described great concern late at night when a light was going off and on – when
he knew from local knowledge that that
was a local signal of impending attack. When he sent text messages as to
whether other team members were okay and received no reply, this exacerbated
his anxiety. We were all asleep with phones switched off. No attack occurred.
Extreme unease was
experienced in having the team surrounded by staring men in a cramped alley in
Pikit market; virtually every local
assumed the Australian UN-INMA member of the team was an American. Many locals
at the Pikit market had very negative views about Americans. Some of the team oblivious
to context were buying hats for wall decorations - at a stall next to the
knife and sickle seller (plenty of handy weapons). One of our team drew the
team leader’s attention to our context and a group of us left immediately,
using a prearranged exit strategy (as mentioned) and were not followed.
No Imam shook the
UN-INMA person’s hand while shaking the hand of all other team members; global
power politics extends to rural Pikit.
UN-INMA actions during the field
trip were constantly guided by our team’s espoused purpose and mission.
Questions were reframed as invites to storytelling – storytelling about how the
local Situ and community members took care of themselves in emergencies.
Secondly, every opportunity was taken to let people know that the team were
able to share healing ways that others in the Region had found worked in
supporting return to wellness. Apart from the Muslim men’s Group, and the Pikit
priest’s group no offers were taken up.
Consistent with
the Secretariat’s purpose and mission to evolve a grassroots network supporting
grassroots psychosocial self-help, these two themes had been introduced in
every country UN-INMA visited for the Secretariat in preparation for Tagaytay.
Some team members
expressed emotional distress with consistently referring to the Missions themes
and frames with this framed as ‘UN-INMA always putting forward their ideas’.
This suggests that some team members were poorly briefed, or had other agendas,
or both. These two themes are fully consistent with our mission. These themes
are woven through the UN-INMA Situation Report. These themes in the Situation
Report may extend readers notions of what psychosocial support may be,
and give scope to perceiving psychosocial
support occurring before our very eyes in ways we may have not perceived when
looking directly at it. Reading the UN-INMA Situation Report with our mission and frames continually in mind may give the reader a sense of these two
themes being reiterated. Those not briefed on, or familiar with these two would
find the reiteration of them weird. All this may give pause to reflect of the
framing of their own feelings. Extending insights may change feelings.
Within cultural
traditions were no one person would ever presume to speak for another, or to
re-present one or more others, it was not appropriate for one team member from
a global governance service delivery body to begin (without any prior
discussion with the team, or the whole team) speaking for the field team at the final meeting with people of the Takepan
communities; in so doing giving personal opinions that were not discussed or
agreed to by the team members – another example of the assumed prerogative of
the top-down.
Interpersonal
stress in the team may flow from experiencing other’s engaging in adaptive mission-based action beyond the
stressed person’s own experience and divergent agendas. It may flow from the
team engaging in discomforting personal and interpersonal growth rather than
retreating to defensive harmony maintaining the status quo and current
performance. Team growth may take people beyond their current comfort level and
beyond their traditional domains of competency. Some in the team, to their
credit, did engage in discomforting personal and interpersonal growth. It is
useful to trace, identify and recognise this happening.
Some members in no
way sensed this field trip as inherently transforming.
It was heard after
returning to Manila that some team members tired of UN-INMA speaking of
‘Neville’. This tiredness, if openly revealed, may usefully have been discussed
during the fieldtrip as part of Team social ecology. Neville is a historical
person. UN-INMA also uses the name ‘Neville’ as a metaphor to refer to 100’s of
extraordinary people met throughout indigenous and small oppressed minorities’
natural nurturer networks in East Asia, Oceania and Australasia. UN-INMA
emerged as a functional matrix – an informal network of ‘Neville like’ energy
in action. UN-INMA is actively present throughout Pikit. ‘UN’ as in ‘Unique
Nurturers’. ‘INMA’ as in ‘Intercultural
(and Inter-religious) Normative Model Areas’. In these
terms, each Situ that we visited is an INMA – a model area exploring norms of
how to live well together interculturally and inter-religiously. The whole of
Pikit is a model area for the rest of Mindanao. For the Region. And for the
World. This disinterest in any talk of Neville or mutual help is a direct
reflection in part of the total
indifference to mutual-help processes
of some team members.
In this context:
o
UN-INMA
is a term relating to a particular kind
of energy in action.
o
UN-INMA
is not an entity that one can belong
to or represent.
o
UN-INMA
refers to a particular set of foci of action.
It is in this sense of the term UN-INMa is alive and
well in Pikit - ‘UN’ as in ‘Unique Nurturers’. ‘INMA’ as in ‘Intercultural (and Inter-religious) Normative
Model Areas’.
UN-INMA way is for pervasive tentativeness; an idea is
just that, an idea. Any idea is the most tentative thing. Ideas can be
deemed deadly dangerous (as in Pol Pot’s
Nothing happens
unless the local people want it to happen and are actively and fully engaged in
making it happen.
What happened on
the Fieldtrip does beg the questions namely:
o
What non-obvious influences where at work
helping to set up who were members of the fieldwork team, given the various
member’s alignment, partial alignment or non-alignment with the missions
framing and purpose?
o
Was their cultural imposition at work when minimising cultural imposition was at the very heart of the
endeavour?
On these themes,
it may be of value to refer:
o
Interfacing
Complementary Wellbeing ways
o
Government and
Facilitating Grassroots Action
o Developing Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Drug and Substance Abuse Therapeutic Communities
It is highly likely, that if people steeped in expert service delivery,
with no experience, understanding or
appreciating of mutual-help and self-help ways are present during initial
assessment, they will detract from
the exercise. It is perhaps better that carefully selected people from
international aid organizations genuinely interested (at the organizational and
personal level) in increasing competence and experience in intercultural
interfacing and gaining experience in mutual-help and self-help, be given this
through using the cultural ways of the Region. This involves experiential
co-learning leading to personal and inter-personal transforming of ways of
becoming - for effective social relating in intercultural settings. Perhaps,
only after this deep immersion may these prepared folk be brought in on the
last days of Rapid Assessment so they are introduced to local competence
networks before the Rapid Assessment team leaves.
One of the Pikit
NGO leaders based in Manila and very active in the Pikit Region was kidnapped
for ransom in Mindanao a few months after our field trip and held for over six
months before negotiated release. This awful ordeal was made far worse because
the kidnappers were highly armed young adolescent separatists who would take no
direction from the MILF militants who have the conflict with the Philippines
military. The field trip was essentially very dangerous. The UN-INMA person on
the team was marked for hostilities as he was assumed by virtually everyone
local to be an American and this idea carried dangerous implications. To have local NGOs being threatened by
UN-INMA talk of enriching community Mutual help in this toxic context is not
advised. We have to do far better in our social relating between all players.
Revising this Report ten years later has
been a very heavy emotional journey. The fieldtrip had taken quite a
psychosocial toll. It took about six years for healing before resumption of
social relating with locals after the prior experience of cultural imposition
at Geoff Guest’s place in 1992 (Geoff attended the Tagaytay
Pre-test.
One influencing
theme in all of this is incomprehension.
Some field members found the notion of ‘natural nurturer’ incomprehensible
though they did not recognise their incomprehension. On this Martin Heidegger
wrote:
To the common
comprehension, the incomprehension is never an occasion to stop and look at its
own powers of comprehension, still less to notice their limitations.
To common
comprehension, what is incomprehensible remains merely offensive – proof enough
to such comprehension which is convinced it was born comprehending everything,
that it is now being imposed upon with a sham. The one thing of which sound
common sense is least capable is acknowledgement and respect (Heidegger, M. (1968). What Is Called Thinking? New York,
Harper & Row. p. 76-77).
From before and at
Tagaytay the incomprehension of natural
nurturing, mutual-help and other cultural ways of the East Asia Region by senior
people at the global governance level left these people sensing that what they
were hearing was a nonsense or sham. They never comprehended that what was in
fact happening was their lack
comprehension of highly effective
social processes pervasively present through the Region (a finding from
Tagaytay). Or if they did comprehend, they would continue to use their own way
everywhere and get on with their jobs with little comprehension or concern of
the collapsing of local way they were doing through culturally imposing their
ways. This incomprehension extended to two members of the field trip team.
Having compromising links for advantage, compromises!
This Report in its
revised form may usefully go to the Secretariat, to PETA, to the head office
people of the NGOs along with the Interfacing
document and Government and Facilitating Grassroots Action. They
may elect to brief their local Pikit people in an expanded role (and offer
training through PETA and Secretariat people):
o
Supporting
local mutual-help and self-help
o
Supporting
the evolving of natural nurturer networks
o
Integrating
mutual-help process
o
Coordinating
interfacing between top down and lateral processes
Some recommendations
Recommendations
have been specified, hinted at, and implied throughout this document.
To reiterate some
of the significant recommendations:
o
Establish a selecting process for experienced
natural nurturers to participate in the SEA-EPSN Co-learning Experiential
Program (presented at Tagaytay as refined by the Pikit Field Trip) preparing
people to carry out Rapid Assessment and to write Situational Reports
o
Carry out such a Program
o
Only include on Rapid Assessment Teams,
members who:
o
Who have completed such Program
o
Fully appreciate and recognise self-help
and mutual-help processes
o
Are competent and experienced in:
o
Recognising natural nurturers in the field
o
Respectfully using cultural and
intercultural interfacing
o
Identifying, supporting and evolving
natural nurturers networks
o
Engaging in rapid assessing of situational
contexts, psychosocial resources, processes and resilience
o
Promptly writing reports (half daily
interim reports & full report with 12 hours of return to base)
o
Fully brief all team members as a group
before they leave for the field
o
With the local Pikit support group
evolving a field safety and exit plan and briefing the full team both before
they leave for the field and immediately they get to the field
o
Have the NGOs that the team will be
engaging with in the field fully briefed at Head Office and field level
regarding the purpose of the Field Trip; and where possible have joint
Secretariat and NGO Head Office briefing of local NGOs in the field regarding
the purpose of the Field Trip, preferably ensure the local NGO people are on
side
o
Do not rely on non-cooperating NGOs
threatened by the team’s work for transport and arranging contacts
o
Never accept funding for the field trip
that will compromise action or the writing or use of the Rapid Assessment
Reports
All of the team
members may be enriched by:
o
Reflecting upon each other’s Journals and
Trip Summaries
o
From reading and reflecting this Situation
Report and Process Review Report, and
o
From reading and reflecting upon the
Synthesis Field Report
A crucial
competence in unsafe environments is tuning into the subtlety of context, in
recognising threat and danger, recognising hidden agendas and taking
appropriate action in the moment-to-moment changing context. The UN-INMA team
member recognises that this area could and should be massively improved.
Given all of the
myriad forces and problematics at play, we did well. Perhaps in this Report
International Aid Organisations may have scope to engage in complementary
action truly respecting local cultural healing ways.
Trip Report from UN-INMA
Resonant Links:
o Rapid Assessing
of Local Wellness, Psycho-Social Resources & Resilience Following Disasters
(RAD)
o
Preparing for and Responding Well to Disasters - PRWD
o Recognising and
Evolving Local-lateral Links Between Various Support Processes