In a bid to empower the Dabawenyo youth as champions of peace, the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), through the Davao City Youth Development Division (DCYDD), started the Peace Camp 2025 this month, with the city’s junior officials and other members of the youth sector participating in the three-day event.
The camp is a central part of the city’s observance of National Peace Month, held annually in September by virtue of Proclamation No. 675, Series of 2004. The declaration mandates local government units to undertake activities that promote peace and conflict resolution.
The first one was held at Eden Nature Park under the theme “Act now for a peaceful world,” and targets to equip participants with the necessary tools to contribute meaningfully to community peace and security.
More schedules for camp has been set to run, catering to 80 participants each, according to Emmanuel Crismas, Acting Head of the DCYDD.
The first batch, which was held from September 12 to 14, brought together junior city officials, five out-of-school youth, and five in-school youth.
During the camp, facilitators conducted discussions on values clarification as a foundation for 21st-century peacebuilding, culture of security, and the government’s ongoing peace efforts.
Crismas emphasized the importance of these topics.
“These are essential to ensure that the personal values of the youth are clear and are not compromised in the process of learning and practicing peace-building initiatives,” he said.
“The terminal goal [of the camp] is to increase the discernment of the youth in identifying whether or not the organizations that they wanted to join in are organizations that promote conflict, are leftists, or mere fronts of armed rebels,” Crismas added.
The subsequent batches are scheduled on September 19–21 for the second batch composed of youth from the first district, September 24–26 for the third batch (youth from district 2), and on September 29 to October 1 for the last batch (youth from district 3).
“We hope that the young people, particularly the participants will live the lessons they learned during the three-day peace camp, and share to others the importance of peaceful and liveable community,” Crismas said. CIO
