A new peace training center in the Philippines that builds on the development work of longtime Mennonite Church Canada International Witness workers is set to celebrate its grand opening in November.
The Malipayon Peace Hub will provide peace and reconciliation training for churches, military leaders, local organizations and Indigenous communities and serve as the home for Coffee for Peace, an agriculture development project that helps fund peace work.
The complex is the vision of Dann and Joji Pantoja, who have worked to build peace on the conflicted island of Mindanao since they arrived in 2006 after living in Canada for 20 years.
The Pantojas grew up in the Philippines, alongside a history of Spanish-Catholic colonialism and clashes between Muslims and Christians, communist activists and the government and Indigenous tribal uprisings.
Violence often pushed Indigenous groups into the hills, where it is harder to farm. Poverty fed antigovernment animosity. At least 2 million people have been displaced in Mindanao by five decades of fighting among six major armed groups.
Dann Pantoja became a student of Anabaptist peace theology after moving to Canada. He’d been an activist against the martial rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“The woundedness of my self-perception as a ‘failed revolutionary’ and the healing process in my 20 years in Canada would be my qualification to explore serving the Creator and our people again,” he said.
The couple established the interfaith organization Peacebuilders Community Inc. in 2006 to share nonviolent peacebuilding and social justice principles with Christians and Muslims.
They also found they could build peace through coffee.
Mindanao’s mountains are ideal for growing coffee beans, but disruptions due to violence, poor plant varieties and unprocessed beans resulted in poor returns for growers. The Pantojas facilitated conflict mediation between communities in armed conflict by inviting leaders for dialogue over coffee.
Understanding between rivals emerged slowly, leading to invitations to other communities to have coffee together for peace.
Coffee for Peace developed into a growers’ cooperative with a processing and roasting facility that sells to buyers at fair prices. Orders are now shipping to Europe.
A three-year program trains growers on ecologically sustainable practices. A café in Davao City sells drinks directly to customers.
Coffee for Peace funds 75% of Peacebuilders Community’s budget. MC Canada funds the other 25%.
“I couldn’t imagine having a summary of my life printed on my tombstone as ‘Spent her life managing rich people’s money,’ ” said Joji Pantoja, Coffee for Peace CEO. “I want to be remembered as a person who walked with the people as they find dignity through sustainable economic development.”
Over the past year, MC Canada worked to raise $235,000 to construct the Malipayon Peace Hub. In addition to housing trainings, the facility includes upgraded processing for Coffee for Peace and a farmer training center, a new staff house and guest house, and a delivery vehicle.
The upgraded processing facility will enable U.S. Federal Department of Agriculture approval of operations, which is vital for accessing export markets. Increased production capacity is anticipated to replace MC Canada funding by 2026.
Mennonite Church Canada contributed to this report.
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