Development for Peace in Sulu

Trip Summary

	Band and Choral Instructor, Richard Bagtasos, leads the choir in song at Mohammad Tulawie Central Elementary School, Jolo, Sulu.
	Folk Arts troupe of Muhammad Tulawie Central Elementary performs traditional Tausug tribal ceremonial dance in school courtyard.
	Pediatrics Ward at newly renovated Sulu Provincial Hospital, supported by the World Bank with medical supplies provided by the Asia America Initiative through MedPharm, Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia.
	AAI Director Santoli, Dr. Thomas Kral, Education Director for USAID and AAI Country Manager Atty. Nabil Tan, distribute anti-parasitic medicine to the school nurse and principal of Port Area Elementary in Jolo.
	The first "Peace Zone" public school in Kasambuhan Village, Indanan, Sulu, built in September 2005 by AAI Special Advisor for Development, Eng. Michael Abubakar.
	AAI team plans with community leaders the completion of a deep water well to provide for safe drinking water for Kasambuhan Elementary and surrounding village.
	USAID Education Director in Philippines, Dr. Thomas Kral, in his favorite element before 4th grade class at Port Area Elementary in Jolo.
	The College of Fisheries at Mindanao State University, home of AAI Community Service Scholarship recipients, has become a livelihood center for the Jolo area.
	Prof. Nur Ancheta, Dean of MSU College of Fisheries in the production center for the College's new Linggisan Food Delights Company created by faculty, AAI Community Service scholars and other students.
	Dean Nur Ancheta, MSU College of Fisheries displays preserved fruits, fish and peanut butter made by her students, an extension of the AAI Scholars program.
	Local community members who attended the MSU College of Fisheries Livelihood Training on Food Processing, supported by the AAI.
	Community residents attending MSU College of Fisheries Livelihood Training seminar learn to pressure cook fish for small business production.
	Computer laboratory at Bakud Elementary School in Jolo.
	Hand-painted instructional murals painted on walls of the Bakud Elementary School computer lab.
	Ms. Shalimar Natino, Director of Computer Program at Jolo Agriculture [High] School, the second AAI nominee for Philippines Teacher of the Year award.
	At Tanjung Elementary in Jolo, the AAI team and Dr. Thomas Kral of USAID distribute textbooks provided by a AAI partner NGO, Brother's Brother of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, through the US Chamber of Commerce in Manila.
	Students at Jolo Agricultural School learn to inoculate poultry with vaccines provided by AAI.
	The Poultry Farm at Jolo Agricultural School, built on a former battlefield. Sign reads "No Lazy Persons Allowed" at JAS [Jolo Agricultural School].
	The AAI newest Model of Excellence school, Kaumpang Elementary, in Patikul where AAI Community Service scholars from the MSU perform as teaching assistants in overcrowded classrooms.
	Inside the bamboo and mud floor schoolhouse at Kaumpang Elementary.
	Leaky thatch roof of Kaumpang Elementary bamboo school house.
	The 2005-2006 AAI Community Service Scholarship recipients from Sulu High School and Jolo National High School.
	A pertinent definition of education on the wall of an AAI Model of Excellence elementary school.

 

DPIS September-October 2005 Trip Summary

Asia America Initiative Director Al Santoli returned to the Autonomous Muslim region of the Philippines in September, 2005, to oversee the fourth year of AAI's innovative Development for Peace in Sulu (DPIS) project. The program has expanded to include to 13 model public schools "from preschool to college and an adult literacy project" through modest private funding and a 2004-2005 grant from the U.S. Congress facilitated by the U.S. Agency for International Development office in Manila.

Sulu, home of the Tausug tribe, is rated on the lowest levels in all Southeast Asian poverty and development studies conducted by the Philippines Government and the United Nations. In addition, Sulu is the traditional home of the fiercest Muslim warriors in the region who have resisted Spanish, American and Japanese efforts to control their islands. During recent years, this tribe was at the forefront in the battle for autonomy. Key leaders of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization originated out of Patikul, an impoverished semi-rural district just outside of Jolo. Today, AAI's most dynamic Community Service Scholarship and Model of Excellence public schools are located in the Patikul area.

In August, 2005, the USAID extended the DPIS Education and Livelihood grant and has designated AAI as one of the lead organizations in the Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills [EQuALLS] consortium made up of U.S. and Philippine Government agencies and private non-profit organizations operating in the Muslim Autonomous Region.

The AAI program, with support from the Scheidel Foundation of Florida, created a "Community Service Scholarship" program for high school seniors at Sulu National and Jolo National High School, and for college seniors at the Mindanao State University and Notre Dame College in Jolo. In order to qualify, students must achieve high academic standards and perform voluntary community service. In a school system which currently suffers a drop-out rate of about 65 percent, the high school scholars serve as "big brothers and big sisters," to incoming students.

The AAI also used private funds from the estate of Dr. Constatine Menges to build the first public school in a designated Peace Zone, in partnership with the local Muslim religious Ulama [senior clergy] and local civic and education leaders. The Kasambuhan Village Elementary School, located in Indanan where fighting between Government forces and local guerillas took place in early 2005, was built at less than half-price by AAI Chief Developmental Consultant Engineer Michael Abubakar. The dedication ceremony on October 1, 2005, included classroom chairs, books and other educational materials provided by the AAI's Adopt-a-Classroom project.

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