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.

Walad is an International Relations student from the Mindanao State University-Main Campus. He is also a visual artist and an advocate of the preservation of Maranao art and culture.

As a child, he experienced neglect because his cousins did not want to play with him. He felt unloved and isolated. He was often inside the house, alone, and envied the kids outside as they played and had fun together. He finds comfort in watching animes, which led him to discover his talent for drawing. He loves to draw his favorite anime characters, and this helped him improve his skills and find comfort and healing.

The first time he joined a poster-making contest, he lost, and this made him sad. His mother discouraged him from pursuing arts altogether because of that. But because of what happened, his maratabat (pride) made him persevere, even more, telling himself that he needs to be the best and win every contest that he will participate in.

When he started seriously pursuing arts, he noticed people from his high school started to recognize his talent and valued his contributions to the school. He felt proud that people started to appreciate his artwork.

Walad believes that art can prevent conflict and violence, specifically structured violence such as poverty and hunger.

This belief helped him when the breadwinner of their family had to go back to Lanao del Sur because of worry and concern about their family’s situation. As an independent student who struggles to make ends meet, art helped him pursue his education by doing commissioned work. This helped him pay for his tuition fees and provide for his daily needs as a student.

In November 2021, he volunteered as an assistant facilitator during the Visual Arts Mentoring Program for Children held in Barimbingan Elementary School, Ramain Lanao del Sur. As someone who advocates for the preservation of Maranao art, he felt sad discovering that children do not know about the art form anymore. They did not have any idea about what it’s called and how to draw it.

Because of this experience, he was more eager to help in the preservation of Maranao art and culture and he believed that as an artist and a Maranao, he has the responsibility to do it for his community.

In June 2022, he was selected to be part of the Visual Arts Mentoring Program for the youth organized by the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement (TPBPM) in partnership with the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) held at Midway-Minkay Beach Resort, Misamis Oriental.

The Artists for Peace Mentoring Workshop provides a creative venue and dialogue where youth shall experience a platform of exchange, sharing of stories, and a reflection and expression of their desire for peace, amid issues they have been facing. They were taught how to use art to create awareness about how having peace with oneself can contribute to peace with others and how our peaceful thoughts and actions can create a ripple effect in peaceful communities. They were also taught new skills and techniques that could help them improve their craft.

The program made him realize that many artists hold on to art to heal – emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially. And he felt happy having found a new family of artists with whom he could be himself. He also discerned that through art, he could inspire other artists to use it as a voice and an instrument to achieve peace. He is also more encouraged to keep the fire burning and to keep creating art pieces that show the beauty of the Maranao culture and art pieces that show peace.

On the night of the recital, he presented his artwork called Warna (a Maranao word that means color), representing unity and diversity using random Maranao faces. He felt happy seeing his fellow artists with their artworks; through the program, they were given a voice.

Inspired by his conversations and the journey of mentors AG Sano, Glendford Lumbao, and Verlin Santos, Walad aims to start an artist’s organization open to all Maranaos, no matter their municipality or school. To give them a space to create and express themselves, where they have a voice and a supportive family that encourages them to be peace heroes.

As recommended by his fellow Artist for Peace Jamael, he plans to call it WARNA which means Ward of Art: Ranaw New Artists. He envisioned the group to be the guardians of Maranao art. He wanted to teach children about Maranao art, and in the future, they can be its guardians as well.

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.

Family is an important foundation in building a peaceful world, but Mohammad Jamael is yet to find forgiveness for himself before he can share it to his loved ones.

Burdens of An Older Sibling

Mohammad Jamael had a younger brother with special needs growing up. His sibling was diagnosed with epilepsy and his conditions made him prone to violent fits. While Jamael tried to be patient with his brother, the tantrums were increasingly alarming over time. There were moments he slaps other people, and at one time when they were kids, the younger brother attacked Jamael with scissors and a knife.

When he was in Grade 1, they were both locked in their house while their parents were away for work and Jamael was tasked to take care of his brother. However, given that they were just kids, the younger brother was able to slip past guidance and was able to run away from the house to a nearby bridge. His parents were furious when they got home and punished Jamael.

Then, when Jamael was in Grade 4, he had to stop going to school for a while because he had to watch over his younger brother since no one wanted to do it. Because his brother tended to harm others, Jamael fought back and retaliated by beating him with tsinelas (flip flops). These incidents made Jamael question the world as to why he was given these hardships. He envied other children as he looked through the window and saw them playing outside with their friends. Jamael was young, and yet, he was not given the freedom to enjoy being a child. Jamael blamed it all on his younger brother because he was the reason Jamael had to stay at home and be locked inside the house. Jamael contemplated running away and just leaving all of these burdens behind.

The Vulnerability in The Environment

However, one day, the younger brother became kinder to him. He invited Jamael to spend time with him. It has been one of the best memories they shared. They ate snacks, made drawings, laughed together, and went outdoors when it started to rain. After drying up inside the house, Jamael left for Marawi to do something with his other siblings. His younger brother looked at Jamael thoughtfully as he went.

On his way home, Jamael saw his father running towards him with tears rolling down his cheeks. He hugged him tightly. Jamael saw his sibling go ahead of him to their house. When he arrived at the door, that is when he saw a body covered by a white blanket. Jamael was confused, at first, but then he pulled the blanket down and saw the forehead of his younger brother. He passed during the day that Jamael went out. His father asked Jamael to forgive the younger brother for all the pain he caused while his mother blamed Jamael for leaving him. Meanwhile, Jamael was still gathering his emotions. He felt the pain and anger getting mixed up and it took his family to help him let go of the blanket.

The sudden passing of his brother made Jamael hate himself, lose interest in academics, and increased his anxiety for fear of leaving his siblings and finding them gone. He found himself crying out of nowhere. He stopped engaging in extra co-curricular activities at school. He internalized the constant blaming and emotional abuse that he got from his mother. These negative emotions that he cultivated within himself pushed him away from his family. Because of this gap that he experiences, Jamael can be vulnerable to negative narratives and can grow from self-hate to nurturing a hateful environment filled with anger and anxiety. Without love and support from his family, Jamael can continue to foster a bitter view of the world.

Rekindling Their Shared Love to Draw

Things began to turn when he found a notebook filled with art that he and his younger brother did. He stopped drawing when the younger brother passed because it only gave him sadness and anger. Yet, he slowly started to pick up creative materials and tried to restart his passion for art. This passion got him invited to join a workshop of the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement.

At first, Jamael was hesitant to join and socialize, but the facilitators were accommodating. They started with a self-introspection and it took him time to face the emotions and anxiety that he has been keeping to himself. They were being reminded that peace starts within ourselves and that they will not be able to share peace if they do not have a piece of it to share. This activity brought him back to the time when Jamael and his younger brother found peace when they were drawing together. Processing these emotions during the activity made Jamael realize that he should forgive himself and use the arts to express himself. It helped that he was with his fellow artists who did not judge him and made him feel safe.

Meeting Kuya AG and Kuya Glen also inspired Jamael to be a better artist not only for himself but also for others. He was unaware that his art can be a vehicle of peace and that it can make an impact on his community. Through Kuya AG, he was able to find confidence in the work that he did, and this pushed him to keep on practicing to hone his craft. Meanwhile, Kuya Glen taught him to use digital arts and maximize the tools that he has to be better at his work.

This workshop motivated him to produce more peaceful art. Soon, his schoolmates noticed what he was doing and were amazed by his work. Also, he found more ways to incorporate peace and his Maranao roots into his art. The learnings he gained from TPBPM were helpful to how he can use the arts in bridging cultural differences in Mindanao. His creations started to gain more traction and more opportunities came in the form of event invitations, side hustles, and artist

Being part of TPBPM helped Jamael find himself and find forgiveness within him.

If he has not given himself a chance for peace, he may not have been able to be the better person that he is today. His inner peace started with him forgiving himself. His younger brother shared his love during his last moments. Jamael feels that he must share this love with the world through peaceful arts.

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.