100,000 evacuees. 47,000 displaced children. It is just too overwhelming, but it's the reality that we have to acknowledge.
For the past weeks, I have been wherever, trying to lend whatever help I can give, but still I felt that what I was giving was never enough.
As a person, I easily get overwhelmed with things and this crisis in my hometown is one that drowned me.
While heading the community kitchen and making sure that we were able to feed 10,000 individuals every meal, at the back of my mind I kept on thinking, "What will Project Banig Zamboanga's role be in this crisis?"
When I turned over my post in the community kitchen to the government, I kept on thinking, "What will be Project Banig's role in this crisis?" The obvious answer will be, "Do storytelling to kids. That's what the group is about." Very well. BUT observing the immensity, the lack of people, the imminent danger at the height of the stand-off, I told my self, "I need time to think it really well." So I kept my self busy by attending to other concerns like curing my body of the colds and cough I got from the work at the evacuation center, and planning rehabilitation projects with Ateneo.
I knew Project Banig should go beyond providing entertainment to the children. I knew Project Banig should go beyond storytelling, beyond art classes, beyond songs and dances and costumes.
And then it hit me. What everybody needs now is HEALING. Healing of the wounds (physical, emotional, psychological) inflicted on us by the war. Healing of anger, of biases, of hate. And just like that, things started to fall into place.
Project Banig teamed up with partners like Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Save the Children Foundation, Lapis for Peace, Apl D Ap Foundation, Museo Pambata Foundation, CANVAS.PH and private individuals and engineered a progressive projects for the psychosocial therapy of the displaced children through the creative arts.
Now, I feel equipped and confident that our work as a team is really beyond entertainment. Here, we heal. Here, we mend.
This is the start of the HEALING MISSION. Ang simula ng paghilom ng mga sugat na dala ng digmaan.
Kiko Miranda
Project Banig Zamboanga
October 4, 2013
*PROJECT BANIG ZAMBOANGA is an interactive storytelling literacy campaign. We go to communities to share stories about Philippine values, folklore, myths and legends.
