Noraya or Aya, in short, is a 24-year-old law student from Iligan. Aya enjoys watching K-dramas and spending time with friends in her spare time just like everyone else. However, more recently, she has developed a new interest in spoken poetry. Another particular about Aya is that her family comes from Butig, Lanao del Sur, a municipality that has historically been the hotbed of violent armed groups. Butig is known for its long history of political unrest, violently disrupted elections, and increasing cases of Rido that have hampered the town’s socioeconomic growth. As far back as Aya can remember, uncertainty and a lack of opportunity forced her family to relocate to Iligan.

When Marawi Siege happened, she remember how she spent the day feeling helpless as a teenager that time. She and her family were in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte when the bombings started. She still recalls the suffering of the “bakwits,” or the Marawi residents who were forced to flee their homes. Iligan City became the main safe haven for the bakwits to evacuate. Although they were in a safe area at the time, she was still worried about how the conflict would develop and how long it would be before her fellow Maranaos could resume their normal lives. Aya wishes she had a way to express her inner frustrations and rage.

Aya is not the type of person who likes to join clubs or any group-related organizations. Although she is interested in learning more about herself, she has doubts about her artistic side as well. But her Ate Izzah, a volunteer in the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement encouraged her that there is no pre-requisite skill when you join the TPBPM – Artist for Peace Mentoring Program, which was held from June 27 to 30, 2022, with funding from the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund.

On her first day, her mother broke the heartbreaking news that she adored her father and had chosen to wed a second woman. She was baffled that her father did not give her the idea that he is considering a second wife. At that point, Aya had no idea where to begin, but she learned from Kuya Verlin, Founder of Titik Production and TPBPM’s mentor and advocate of art for peace about how to find inspiration, write in rhyme with natural intent, and keep her composure while reciting poetry. Ironically, the inspiration to write a piece came at a good time to get an inspiration to write a piece.

“I thought it would be difficult for me to look for an inspiration to write, not to justify na it was okay to me but in a way, something was meant to me to be inspired to write and appreciate the beauty of spoken word poetry.”

As a result of what happened while writing the piece, Aya learned to accept the things that were under her control. She expands on themes pertaining to the difficulties and potential conflict that her community, Butig will face in the future as she continues to write spoken word pieces. After the program, she gained a new group of friends as well and a sense of purpose with them. They discuss how such a persistent conflict can be addressed using art as a constant topic of discussion whenever they sit down to have coffee.

The use of spoken word poetry to offer commentary on a range of socially significant issues is well known. Aya saw this as an opportunity to empower her writing so that it can challenge the community for change and help Lanao achieve peace, even though she is new to this field of the arts. One of the wonderful things about spoken word poetry is that it has a two-way benefit. She is also grateful to the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement for introducing her to spoken word poetry. Today, Aya is working to be involved with Artists for Peace and more youth organizations. She is more eager now to perform her piece and spread the importance of peace education in the future.

A workshop initiative hosted by John Hopkins University titled Letters for Peace (LFP) that arranges workshops at the intersection of creative writing and conflict transformation to promote healthy discourse in war-torn areas among youth in Armenia and Azerbaijan. They found out that conducting writing workshops encourage youth involvement in peacebuilding. Writing gives them a platform to express themselves while also fostering self-awareness and socioemotional skills. Because without a long-term strategic plan to guide how our young people should be facing their struggles and their own conflicts, they may resort to joining violent groups and experience mental health issues. Conflict-torn areas like Butig, where intimidation, political instability, and slow growth in development have been proven to be the driving forces behind violent extremism. Through writing workshops, young people like Aya can continue to develop and tackle issues of peace and conflict management in their writing. In her way how physical security is essential to fostering inner peace and mindfulness in young people. Aya kept honing her skills and discovered a new love for performing spoken poetry. And these abilities are a solid foundation for promoting peace education among young people and children. Aya believed that peace should begin within the self and that through writing, we can spread hope for the change we want to see in our communities.

Samsoden, also known as Ken, is a 19-year-old civic youth empowerment advocate and aspiring leader from Maguing, Lanao del Sur. He likes to practice public speaking, host events, and write spoken-word poetry in his free time.

He was raised in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, but was born in Maguing. Ken saw how political and land disputes in his family’s hometown, where “rido,” or family feuds, are still frequent, intimidate, and mistrust the young people of Maguing. News outlets and government agencies have reported that a few ISIS-linked terrorist groups remain in this town in the first quarter of 2022.

Ken’s family and their business experienced a direct impact on the Marawi Siege. Their family business is located on Banggolo Street situated in the so-called Ground Zero in Marawi after the destruction happened in Marawi Siege. His family got stuck as they planned to prepare for welcoming Ramadhan. It was almost ten days after he was able to reunite with his family. He was in Maguing when the first bombing was made, until the end of the siege, but all he can remember was how the worry, anxiety, and frustration got mixed up in his emotional well-being. He experienced difficulty in breathing and kept himself frantic with activities to ease his worry about his family. As he was just a teenager at that time, he felt guilty about what he can do to help and forgot that he needed help to process his overwhelming anxiety.

Youth is one of the most vulnerable sectors in times of war, they must reconnect with their emotions and accept that there are things that they are not accountable for, instead they need support as well. While psychosocial support is imperative for victims of all ages, youth, and children, studies have found that children and youth are vulnerable to exposure, to violent extremist ideas and groups. While some may be driven by a sense of righteous indignation, others may be carried away by their ignorance (Hughes 2016). And these viewpoints can help explain why young people might not be able to see their potential as active agents for peacebuilding if they lack community support. Youth like Ken at the time of the tragic incident in Marawi need psychosocial support to process their mental health and lead them to realize that they can have a potential role to contribute in restoring peace in Marawi.

In Ken’s case, he learns to take them on as a test and uses them as, motivation to grow as a person and become a symbol of hope for his neighborhood. Ken is one of the young people who participated in the Artist for Peace Mentoring Program of the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement (TPBPM), which was run from June 27 to June 30, 2022, with support from the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund. Initially, Ken was unsure of his ability to write a spoken word.

“During the workshop, Kuya Verlin, the founder of Titik Poetry, taught us technical and creative strategies for writing poems. It became an outlet to tell my story, and now writing and reciting the spoken word is a part of who I am. “I thought I only needed to write in English.”

The days of the mentoring program taught him how to find inspiration, write deliberately, compose rhymed poems, and keep his composure while reciting poetry. He was able to speak and tell the tale of a terrifying battle that had taken place in Marawi because of the skills he had learned. One of the highlights of the program for him was when he was given a space and an opportunity to perform in front of a much larger audience. As one of the victims of the siege, spoken word poetry gave him a way to express his feelings, inner voice, and hope.

“I am beyond grateful to TPBPM because of the learnings and experiences. My TPBPM journey was really a life-changing experience. It gives me valuable insights into peace initiatives. One thing that is noteworthy in my learnings in TPBPM is practicing the culture of peace and being mindful in all aspects. It taught me to be a peaceful person and equipped me with enough knowledge about peace.“

After the program, Ken’s motivation to take charge of his community, particularly in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, significantly increased. He acquired in-depth knowledge and a greater understanding of the value of peace. He had the vision that he could change the world and the status quo while preserving and upholding peace. He wants to be a leader who puts people first, favors nonviolence over force, and upholds moral standards that allow them to advance social justice, peace, and order. He believed that leaders ought to think that responding and settling disputes peacefully can prevent sieges, wars, and even insurgencies.

He gets involved in the work and planning for various communities in Lanao del Sur by joining youth organizations. He admires TPBPM’s dedication and works in advancing peace education by giving people from various backgrounds effective and integrative results. He believed that he could use his artistic talent to inspire other young people, particularly those in Lanao, to become involved in their communities.

The pen is and will always be mightier than the sword. Filipino national heroes like Dr. Jose Rizal, Del Pilar, and Apolinario Mabini have shown the Philippines how writing became a tool for freedom and change. In the present, we continue to see the power of different forms of writing in speaking the truth, fighting the oppressors, and, like what happened in Marawi, giving voice to the victims. That is why different kinds of art, like creative writing and performing arts, can manifest the hopes and aspirations of the youth of Marawi. Maranao youth like Ken, who have been victims of the Marawi Siege, can use the power of writing to speak out for the desired change. It’s almost like a creative act for him; writing has kept me motivated to help my community. He is now actively involved in his youth group to inspire young people to make a difference in Lanao and create opportunities for their future. He continues to create spoken word poetry as an artist for peace in order to spread his optimism for his neighborhood and encourage more young people to take part in peacebuilding.

Merhamah, also known to her friends as Mica, is a 21-year-old Niqabi Civil Engineering student from Mindanao State University and an artist. She was able to develop a strong and conscious modesty practice through her lifestyle, which made her a Niqabi. A niqab is a veil covering the hair and face except for the eyes.

Given that she is a young girl and lives in a non-Muslim community, making that choice would test her mental stamina. In her early years as Niqabi, she is ridiculed for how she prays and is underestimated for her abilities because they think she only knows her faith. At the height of the Marawi Siege in 2017, Mica and other niqabis in Lanao del Sur experienced stereotyping and discrimination just because of what they wore. They were being mocked as an extremist or terrorist for wearing black and a niqab and being mistreated based on safety. Niqabi can be mistaken for an attempt by extremists to conceal their identity. This can support the notion that the events during the siege spread fear throughout the neighborhood, particularly among Muslims. And war and conflict-related maltreatment call for a deep sense of peace and support among victims, children, and adults.

During the pandemic, when schools shifted online, she was surprised that she still experienced exclusion while being in a Muslim-majority university because of her niqab. While taking an online exam, her instructor required her to take off her niqab to prove that it was her taking it. She almost cried, explaining why she could not do it and providing other evidence to verify her identity. After that incident, Mica became aware of the possibility of religious prejudice, even in places where most people are Muslims.

“I can’t forget the feeling of being discriminated against, I was embarrassed, but I stood my ground. I respectfully refused my teacher’s request to remove my niqab. I explained that it is my right to practice my religion. I felt anxious but at the same time very liberated.”

Mica is also known for having a creative side. However, before participating in the Artist for Peace Mentoring Program, Mica’s idea of peace was only the absence of fear due to the violence brought about by her experience during the Marawi Siege. Her visual art is very personal to her. Still, during the program, she discovered how to find inspiration and use it to cultivate peaceful habits. During the mentoring program, she struggled to balance her studies and mourning her brother’s death. However, she learned that emotional struggle could inspire her works of art. She realized that when mindful of your thoughts and innermost feelings, you can express them through art.

The Artists for Peace Mentoring Program taught her how to effectively advocate for peace by using art as a medium. She also discovered how to nurture her inner peace by creating art pieces that speak peace. Whenever she feels stuck in the judgment of others based on how she looks, she learns how to deal with it by creating calligraphy art as a way of meditation. Creating art pieces like this is like freeing the negative thoughts all over her mind.

Providing inclusive spaces and a place to create for youth like Mica is essential in building a harmonious and inclusive community. Their ideas can be directed toward fostering artistic expression in a local community context, directing their energies in creative rather than destructive directions. We need to harness their creativity and energy to help build peaceful environments. Therefore, we must make use of different mediums of art – from multicultural music, creative writing, visual arts, poetry, photography, film, and other forms of art, to promote peace, identity, unity, and the value of respect for human life.

Through her art, Mica envisions being a role model and inspiring young Muslims to be active members of the community. A person who expresses her frustrations and disappointments through non-violent means by using her brush, paints, and canvas. She’ll continue to create, in the hopes that her art may bring peace to others, whatever faith they may belong to.

Nawal is a 20-year-old Maranao, mental health advocate, and digital artist. She enjoys pursuing her digital art abilities and uses them to create IEC materials for her organizations in the school. Her family is from Bacolod Kalawi, Lanao del Sur but she grew up in Marawi City.

She learned from Kuya AG Sano and Kuya Glendford Lumbao the value of finding her art style and how powerful art is as a tool to share her story and inspire others to create change in their communities. It also made sense to her why the Mandala pattern appears in most of her artworks. Mandala signifies art as meditation and a sense of self-awareness; this reflects her advocacy and emphasis on the value of mental health among Muslim Maranao to nurture inner peace and resilience.

More than the concept and ideas, Nawal found an added support group and a community with the same goal. When she and her co-artist for peace began to get to know one another on the first day, she felt a natural connection. The moment she will not forget is the culture of peace circle where they shared about themselves and got to know others more as well. The sense of stillness and belongingness are profound to describe. If a young adult like Nawal found peace in a group, her actions would be motivated by a peace-promoting mission or goal. To prevent young people from engaging in groups with violent ideologies they must be provided with spaces to nurture their inner peace, cultivate their talents, and a space where they feel safe and supported.

Nawal was in her early teens at the time of the Marawi siege, but despite her youth, she tried to understand why it had occurred and what had caused it. It was challenging to survive a day at that time, aside from socio-economic concerns, unstable mental health was also a major concern, especially for youth like her. She believes that this fear and anxiety permeated the whole of Lanao del Sur until now. Because of Maranao’s culture of “maratabat” or pride, the needed mental health support for children and youth is left undiscussed.

She believes that youth should start discussing mental health matters and address the necessary support instead of romanticizing the culture. Because if the required psycho-social support is not provided, it runs the risk of bringing back the people to a cycle of disrupted sense of peaceful communities. It is important to process and provide the necessary needs, just as the violent extremism that occurred in Marawi caused a lot of distress to the community that is vulnerable to trauma or mental health disorders.

“During that session, a special bond was created because some of the experiences that we cannot share with our friends, we shared in that circle, in that shared safe space. I think that helped us to communicate deeply and I am very amazed because that made us so brave to tell our experiences to each other. “

The Artists for peace circle strengthened their bond. They developed friendships with regular communication inside and outside the school a few months after the program. They made sure that, at the very least, small groups would meet up and catch up over coffee to discuss their plans and ideas for a future workshop on peace education. Before, Nawal only used art to express her feelings. Still, through Teach Peace Build Peace Movement mentors and facilitators, she formed a habit of checking on herself by creating beautiful mandalas.

This also deepens her commitment to using her art to educate others. Nawal could see the power of art to strengthen her role as a youth in preventing conflict and, to a greater extent, the pervasive violent extremism in their community thanks to her in-depth understanding of inner peace and peace education. She sees it as an advantage to interact creatively with other young people about the dangers of ongoing conflict and violent extremism in their community.

An analysis of the use of social media for recruitment from the National Defense College of the Philippines states that terrorist organizations are creating a battlefield in cyberspace by incorporating social media platforms into their communication structures and strategies. Hence, terrorist groups can project a large online presence to communicate with their followers and donors, train their members, disseminate their propaganda to specific audiences, and recruit new members across the globe. Thus, empowering artists like Nawal to share peaceful narratives online can encourage youth like her to choose the path of peace and non-violence. Creating spaces for peaceful dialogue is essential for young people’s voices to be heard and interact with people from different cultures and religions thus widening their perspective and worldview. By creating IEC materials and digital arts, Nawal hopes to share more stories of peace and help in creating a more peaceful online space for all.