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ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
The word "KAMINKAP", as it is more commonly known, is the acronym for Kabataang Mindanao Para sa Kapayapaan. For purposes of interaction with international partner agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals, we use the English version Youth of Mindanao for Peace. KAMINKAP is a non-stock, not-for-profit, non-government private voluntary social development organization. It utilizes the strategies of capacity building, advocacy and IEC, research, and community intervention in the fields of: (1) Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation; (2) Social Justice and Human Rights; (3) Pro-Mindanao Initiatives; and (4) Community Organizing and Development in empowering the young people of Mindanao.
It believes that, little or no development in the community can take place and be sustained if the peace and justice situation is not first assured. KAMINKAP believes that there can be no sustainable peace if it was attained exclusively through military superiority in the first place. It believes in the power of dialogue and active nonviolence as alternative methods of settling conflicts and promoting peace, unity and social order, particularly between and among the Tri-People. KAMINKAP strives to help eradicate the cultures of proverty and violence in Mindanao. It endeavors to empower the youth and capacitate them in order to become working partners of present stakeholders in addressing the myriad problems that is presently facing Mindanao.
KAMINKAP is not a militant organization. It is neither leftist nor rightist in orientation. It is non-aligned and non-partisan.
KAMINKAP is an organization composed of young professionals working with government agencies, private enterprises, and civil society, as well collegiate student leaders , aged 21 years to 35 years old. These young people come from the TRI-PEOPLE (Settlers, Moro, and Lumad sectors) of Mindanao, Philippines.
KAMINKAP, Inc. is a private voluntary social development organization dedicated to the tasks of promoting genuine and lasting peace, unity, justice, and development in Mindanao. Founded in May 2004, and with Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission Registration No. CN200539041, it classifies itself as a youth-serving NGO.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
KAMINKAP is a binary organization, divided between a group of volunteer-members and a technical staff. On the volunteer side, the highest policy-making body of the organization is the Board of Trustees, which is headed by an elected Chairperson. It takes charge of the official policies and direction of the organization. On the other hand, the Director heads the Technical Staff. The technical side assumes responsibility in translating mandates and policies into operational plans as well as their implementation. The technical staff is divided into the Management Support Unit and the Program Development Unit. The Management Support Unit provides administrative and logistical support to the operational needs of the Program Development Unit. The Program Development Unit substantiates the programs of the organization and implements the program’s projects.
ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIENCE
KAMINKAP has proven its capacity to conduct capability building activities, advocacy events, and community organizing in the fields of peacebuilding, culture of peace, and unarmed civilian peacekeeping, whether on its own, in partnership with other agencies and NGOs, or as a member institution of a network. DUYAN MINDANAW has designated KAMINKAP, Inc. as its acting secretariat until such time that an independent secretariat can be formed for the network. In relation to this project, KAMINKAP is a partner of organizations that are involved and active in various peace initiatives throughout Mindanao, thereby allowing KAMINKAP’s work to reach numerous communities and individuals in the area.
In terms of capability building experience, KAMINKAP’s core staff members have organized and/or facilitated not less than twelve (12) capability building / workshop-seminar / training activities on the culture of peace and on human rights among others between them prior to their involvement in KAMINKAP. KAMINKAP organized the Training of Trainers on the Culture of Peace and Peacebuilding for Young Adults on December 26-29, 2004 and co-organized for PAKAT the Community Organizing Workshop on FGDs and KIIs and the Active Nonviolence Training for the field facilitators of the PAKAT Network on February 2005. This enables KAMINKAP’s staff and project implementation team to effectively co-facilitate the activities proposed in this project with partner organizations.
In terms of experience in community consultation, as a partner organization of the PAKAT Network, KAMINKAP has fielded four (4) individuals from its core staff to serve as part of the field facilitators in the project titled “Mindanao Consultations and Strategic Planning on Third-Party Nonviolent Intervention”, where at least one KAMINKAP staff was deployed in each of the twelve (12) communities consulted. In addition, one member was assigned as Mindanao Coordinator, while another was designated as part of the project’s steering committee.
In terms of advocacy and networking activities, KAMINKAP’s core members have led in the implementation of two (2) Mindanao Week of Peace celebrations in the City of General Santos, led the organizing of three (3) Multi-Sectoral Walks for Peace – one during the aftermath of the bombing incident of April 21, 2002 which had caused the death of eighteen (18) civilians and varying injuries to over sixty (60) others, one in cooperation with the Notre Dame of Dadiangas College Peace Education Center in commemoration of the 2002 Mindanao Week of Peace, and one in March 23, 2003 to preempt any bombing incident in the city, after five (5) nearby cities have experienced the same. All three have also led the “speaker’s bureaus” that conducted radio hopping activities to call for peace and unity during each Mindanao Week of Peace celebrations, the three Multi-Sectoral Walks for Peace, and one International Day of Peace celebration in September 2002. All these activities required linkaging with the LGU of General Santos City, the local media, church and religious groups, the private sector, academe and partner NGOs and support agencies.
KAMINKAP’s core competencies allow it to provide technical services to partner organizations. It fielded a four-man team to serve as documenters of the 2005 Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute. It fielded one staff member to serve as documenter and data analyst for the UNDP-EC project with the Catholic Relief Services which documented lessons learned in Sanctuaries of Peace. It fielded two staff members to serve as facilitating team the Youth Graft Watch General Assembly and its follow up conference on February of 2006 for The TAG project of MINCODE, KFI and CBCS in Cotabato City. It fielded one staff member to serve as project consultant for the ACT for Peace Programme project with the Catholic Relief Services in the drafting of four (4) enhanced and sector-specific versions of the culture of peace manual. It is presently assisting the NDDU Peace Education Center and the Youth Affairs and Development Office of the Gen. Santos City Hall in programmatic and project concerns.
Unique Contribution to Society -
The members of KAMINKAP would like to disprove the common misconception that youth organizations are merely transitory in nature and are bound to disappear after a few years. It is determined to become a sustainably operating organization so that it may continue its grassroots and community programs and reach as much of the youth sector of Mindanao as possible, thereby standing hand-in-hand with other stakeholders in society towards the attainment of a better Mindanao.
KAMINKAP is convinced that the skills in empowering the tri-people communities of Mindanao, should not only be the exclusive expertise of older people, or people with at least a tertiary educational attainment, or should only be facilitated by older people with graduate and post graduate degrees. These skills should be transferred, replicated and shared to the youth sector, so that as much of the sector can prevent their fellows from becoming victims of present societal ills, and so that the youth sector could be more prepared and competent in assuming the cudgels of facing the challenges encountered by society as the stewards of the future. KAMINKAP is determined to echo and re-echo these through its programs to the youth sector of Mindanao at their initiative and create the necessary critical mass to really empower themselves, so that they may be respected and sincerely listened to by their elders, and so that they may also be prepared for their future.
KAMINKAP has used the framework of Prof. Toh Swee Hin in developing its four (4) main programs. As a result, one of the four programs is the Peace and Nonviolence Program. This program aims to respond through education, advocacy and intervention to the multi-dimensional issues and concerns of the Mindanao peace situation. This includes the utilization of peace practices and theories in areas of conflict at the grassroots level through the areas of: (1) Active Peacebuilding, (2) Active Nonviolence or nonviolent peacekeeping and peacemaking, (3) Peace Education, (4) Peace Advocacy, and (5) Conflict Prevention, Resolution, Management and Transformation. Also in the implementation of the activities and projects developed by this program, KAMINKAP adopts the framework of the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence developed and promoted by UNESCO, and the framework on Peace Education by Prof. Toh Swee Hin and Prof. Virginia Cawagas.
Networks and Alliances -
KAMINKAP has been privileged to gain membership in Mindanao-based NGO networks whose core advocacies are on peace, nonviolence and development, among others, to wit:
1. Mindanao Congress of Development NGOs and NGIs (MINCON)
2. Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)
3. Pangkapayapaang Adhikaing Kusang-dangal Aksyon Tagapamagitan – Nonviolent Peaceful Initiatives, Volunteer Actions for Mediation (PAKAT)
KAMINKAP has likewise forged alliances with the NGOs affiliated with these networks. KAMINKAP also serves as the secretariat-agency of the fledgling DUYAN-MINDANAW network. KAMINKAP intends to utilize its linkages with these networks in seeking for technical and ground assistance and collaborations in subsequent endeavors after project phase out in order to ensure sustainability of the initiatives it has implemented in this project.
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