MARIA TERESA “MARITES” GUINGONA-AFRICA (Philippines)


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MARIA TERESA “MARITES” GUINGONA-AFRICA
has been engaged in the endeavor of building relationships of mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation among peoples of diverse cultures and beliefs since 1998. Her passion for the work was ignited by a vision of a world where religions bring to the fore the highest teachings and ideals of their faith in promoting unity amid diversity among people. This was inspired in her by the Charter of the United Religions Initiative (URI), a global interfaith community that works toward creating cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

 

In March 2001, she founded The Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation, Inc. (TPCFI), a non-stock and non-profit Manila-based interfaith NGO. The 9/11 terror attacks on the United States deepened her conviction and increased her passion for creating “safe spaces” and “common grounds” where diverse peoples could meet and engage in dialogue with one another without fear. She served as URI Regional Coordinator for Southeast Asia and the Pacific from 2001-2005. In 2007, she was elected trustee of URI in SEAPac and, in 2008, served the URI Global Council as Vice-President.

 

Marites completed her M.A. in Theological Studies at the Loyola School of Theology of the Ateneo de Manila University, and certificate courses on Religion: Source of Conflict, Resource for Peace from the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) in Davao, and the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) of the Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. From 2007-2009 she trained under John Paul Lederach (renowned lecturer on conflict transformation and peacebuilding) in an action-reflection program on Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. This spanned a period of two years and required travel to Ethiopia, Northern Uganda, India, and the United States where the trainings were conducted.

While based in Metro Manila, she endeavored to respond to the challenge to peace in her homeland Mindanao by investing time, energies and resources in promoting Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Relationship-Building in grassroots communities around the metropolis where Muslims and Christians lived alongside each other as neighbors. She designed training workshops on the various ways of creatively engaging moral imagination, intra- and interfaith dialogue and heart listening in addressing people’s biases and prejudices and in promoting conflict transformation and peacebuilding for social change. With the help of colleagues at TPCFI, and small grants from The Asia Foundation, the US and Australian embassies, she conducted workshops for groups of imams and priests, the youth, women, community leaders, teachers, members of the police force, etc., and inspired the establishment of Muslim-Christian Peacemakers’ Associations in Tala (Caloocan City), Culiat (Quezon City), Quiapo (Manila), and Maharlika Village (Taguig).

 

On March 7, 2009, at a presentation she made before an assembly of five hundred people in San Francisco, USA, Marites received a Special Congressional Recognition from then Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the US House of Representatives for her “outstanding and invaluable service to the community.”

In 2013, with support from the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Marites and the TPCFI team, in partnership with the Balay Rehabilitation Center, conducted a 1-year pilot training program on Intra-Faith Dialogue for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the areas of armed conflict of North Cotabato, Mindanao. This promoted love and forgiveness between its Muslim and Christian participants, and inspired the creation of Salam and Shalom Community Intra-Faith Dialogue Circles in those areas.

 

Marites is currently in the process of finishing her dissertation-writing for a Ph.D in Applied Cosmic Anthropology, and is also teaching a college course on Muslim-Christian Dialogue for Nation-Building at the Ateneo de Manila University.

 

Know more about her:

Salute to a Filipina Uniting Muslims and Christians

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Salute-to-Filipina-uniting-Muslims-Christians-3169141.php

 

The Interfaith Observer http://theinterfaithobserver.org/who-we-are/single-gallery/10646576

Interfaith Dialogue,  Reconciliation and Relationship-Building http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/2009/V23n1/InterfaithDialogue.htm

Peacemakers’ Circle: Muslim-Christian Unity http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DbhdPzLWZHuM

Interfaith Action for Social Change http://makingspaceforinterfaithdialogue.com/category/action-for-social-change/

Interfaith Action with Vision and Conviction http://makingspaceforinterfaithdialogue.com/2014/05/20/interfaith-action-with-vision-and-convict

 

The Peacemakers’ Circle https://www.facebook.com/thepeacemakerscircle

Video: In the Light of the Crescent Moon Part I https://youtu.be/77sZ1etCVyU  and Part II https://youtu.be/vCEB8xxaG2I

URI November  https://www.uri.org/the_latest/author/maritesafrica

Interfaith Friendship Pilgrimage http://makingspaceforinterfaithdialogue.com/2014/02/18/un-interfaith-harmony-week-2014-with-the-