kababaihan-at-kapayapaan-issue-3

The Paglat Moro Women’sLead Organization (PMWLO)The Paglat Moro Women’s Lead Organization (PMWLO) has 240 members bothMNLF and MILF including some 35 widows with five to eight children. It is ledby Lubaida Litigan Manson, a sanitary inspector with the government’s ruralhealth unit (RHU).PMWLO participated in the drawing up of a women’s situationer for theNAP focusing on four concerns: health, education, economic, and waterand sanitation. PMWLO members live in barangays located around the220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh that straddles three provinces includingMaguindanao. Many families farm rice and other crops during the dry seasonand fish during the wet season. But heavy rains trigger devastating floods,disrupting normal daily activities such as children’s schooling.Lubaida recalls a time, not too long ago, when many PMWLO members didn’town cooking pots. They had to borrow clothes to attend a wake.But starting 2012 onwards “May palayok na nakasabit, nakakapag-enrol, alagaanng mabuti, may ‘buntis patrol’, health (services) pupunta sa kanila (There is acooking pot hanging in the kitchen, the kids are able to enroll, they are wellcared for, there is a ‘pregnancy patrol’, health services now come to them)”.Lubaida was speaking of the changes initiated when over a hundred PMWLOmembers joined the government’s Pantawid program providing health andeducation subsidies to poor families.PMWLO’s nexus with NAP has also provided skills training and livelihoodopportunities such as water lily weaving and fiber processing courtesy ofthe provincial government and Villar Foundation. Sixty members of RuralImprovement Clubs around the Liguasan Marsh area participated (PMWLOwomen are also RIC members). The marsh abounds in water lily and waterhyacinth that can be processed and woven into mats, baskets, fans andslippers. The British development agency Oxfam donated P1 M to PMWLO forsanitary toilets and capital. Villar Foundation ordered a million woven matsfor Yolanda typhoon victims in Leyte. PMWLO members produced close to 400mats earning them P56,000.Their newfound earning power and capacity to create products functionaland beautiful come with a strong sense of self, and a desire to keep theirhouseholds, including toilets, clean. Some old problems are being addressedbut others remain, for instance, marketing of the women’s woven crafts.For another, when the rogue rebel group BIFF attacks, Paglat becomes anevacuation zone, rice fields are abandoned, interrupting harvest and disruptinglivelihood. As well, there is a need to straighten up regional Pantawidaccounts and address the problem of delayed, reduced or missing remittances.Nevertheless the PMWLO women led by Lubaida hope in a future that willprovide their children with basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, education andhealth care.by Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc., andsupported by European developmentagencies. Engaged in peace,children’s rights and environmental(particularly of Liguasan Marsh)advocacies, AK is a major partner inNAP. Paglat municipality has allocatedAK a spanking new modest structurefor its use. According to BainotKalanganan, children’s organizer, AKactivities employ creative methodssuch as film showing, photo exhibits,theater skills training and others inits community education sessions andcampaigns.Similarly, Child Alert Internationalhas helped NAP by training municipalsocial welfare officers through 51community sessions in evacuationcenters and host communities in14 barangays, in conjunction withthe Commission on Human Rightsand the Philippine National Police.Rural Improvement Clubs (RICs) haveserved as the basic rural women’sorganization for long decades now,their vital presence felt once morewhen the NAP tapped RICs for skillstraining last year and other activities.Still, the Maguindanao NAP needs toreach out to more CSOs and NGOs forgreater impact and effectiveness.Men as champions and supportstaffGender and development is premisedon more equitable male-femalerelations. If, as they say, charitybegins at home, advocacy of andsupport for NAP-cum-GAD must startwith men in government. With Tungaand Pol Ampatuan are young malepoliticians who prioritize the needsof their constituents, including andespecially, poor women.The tragic circumstances surroundingGov. Esmael (Toto) Mangudadatu’sgubernatorial bid and victory are24 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN March 2015