Jasmin Nario-Galace (Philippines)


Jasmin was born in the province and spent her earlier education in a provincial school. She fondly remembers those days as happy ones, because she and her classmates had good relationships despite many differences including in socio-economic status, abilities, and places of origin. For her high school and college education, she studied in Metro Manila, where as a young High School student she experienced prejudice in the hands of bullies due to her physical looks and unsophisticated ways as someone coming from the province. These experiences in her young life gave her the resolve that she will be compassionate and have empathy for the victims of prejudice and unfair treatment.

 

Of course she has a gone a long way after that level of education. She went on to become an active student leader in her college years and in her college senior year got elected as Student Council President. It was during this time that she became an even more active advocate of justice and peace. She immersed herself in the lives of those who have been disadvantaged, politically and economically. She started joining and leading public actions to call for needed structural changes. Later, as the young Coordinator of the Office of Social Concerns of her alma mater (Miriam College), this leadership and immersion in the lives of the poor and victims of injustice continued and deepened her resolve to continue being a peace and justice worker.

 

In the early 1990s she was nominated to be a graduate student-scholar in the University of Notre Dame in the United States. She finished her MA in Peace Studies and a few years after her return, the Center for Peace Education (CPE) was founded at Miriam College. She was invited to join the Founding Director and eventually became the Associate Director. Upon the retirement of the former, she assumed the Executive Directorship.

 

In her current role as CPE Executive Director and National Coordinator of WE Act 1325, as well as Chair of the Committee on Peace and Justice Education of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philip[pines (CEAP), among other leadership positions, she has brought the work of these three organized groups to higher heights. She intensified the advocacy of the following issues in both the national and the global spheres:

  • Mainstreaming peace education
  • Controlling gun proliferation and gun violence
  • Campaigning for the Arms Trade Treaty
  • Campaigning for nuclear weapons’ abolition
  • Training and campaigning for meaningful women’s participation in the prevention and resolution of conflict as well as in peace building
  • Formulation of a National Action Plan on UN SCR 1325 and monitoring of its implementation
  • Lobbying for the Mindanao Peace Process among legislators, etc.

 

Needless to say, her contribution to peace and justice in the country and worldwide has been truly significant and deserves to be recognized.

Works written by JNG:

 

 

 

Works written about JNG:

        Jasmin Nario-Galace, pp. 18-19, featured in the International Women’s Day 2015 booklet, Empowering Women, produced by the Australian Government. Please see attached.

        “In Focus: Jasmin Nario-Galace,” written by the Global Alliance against Armed Violence (GAAV), http://www.allianceonarmedviolence.org/featured-members/in-focus-jasmin-nariogalace

“Jasmin Nario Galace (Philippines” http://www.gnwp.org/team/jasmin-nario-galace-philippines