LISTOWEL – On Thursday, Oct. 20, three citizens from the Philippines came to a Grade 7 class at North Perth Westfield Elementary School to talk peace.
Joji Pantoja has won numerous United Nations awards as well as the Oslo Business for Peace Award for her work with “Coffee for Peace.” This business uses coffee production as a tool to address the economic, environmental and peace issues prevalent in conflict-affected communities. The company provides training to Indigenous and rural communities; eventually the trained farmers and communities become suppliers of coffee cherries and coffee beans to Coffee for Peace.
With her was Ka Boyet Ongkiko, who is the vice-president for institutional and program development at PeaceBuilders Communities, and Tala Bautista, who is of the Sumacher tribe and represents PeaceBuilders Community, Inc. (PBCI) and Coffee for Peace in the Cordillera Region. The three are visiting Canada to promote their peace work and were in Listowel to speak that evening at the Listowel Mennonite Church.
Tala, Joji, and Ka Boyet’s messages continually focused on accepting others and embracing differences and used personal examples that they have learned from. They spoke about the impact of colonization and students were able to make many connections from North America about the negative impact of colonization. They explained some of the complexities of fighting in the Philippines and how they are trying to work with groups to work towards decolonization and peace.
