The Learning Conference is an annual gathering where practitioners and advocates of children’s rights and community development—especially civil society organizations, churches, and the academe—unite, pray, commune, celebrate, and journey together. Its theme: “Responding to Contemporary Challenges Through Child-Focused Church and Community Mobilization.”
It is an avenue to tell stories, share learning experiences, and present the best practices. It also provides an opportunity to know more on how ministries are shaped and how communities experience transformational development.
For 2020, due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was conducted online through Zoom. The 2020 Learning Conference was divided into four sessions held in separate dates—August 17, September 14, October 14, and November 26, 2020. A total of 80 participants from different partner-organizations of Lingap Pangkabataan Inc. (LPI) from the Philippines, Asia, and Europe attended the first session.
The resource person, the Rev. Francisco “Nonie” Aviso, Jr., talked about the church shepherding to children and communities in these “changing times.” He emphasized that the church must live out the core values in shepherding, namely, respect, compassion, justice, sustainability, and stewardship. The church also needs to ask themselves, what works and what does not. When these questions are answered honestly, it can help them come to an understanding of the actualities and constraints that have affected the ministry of the Church during its work.
For the second session, the focus shifted to children and families amid the pandemic and how they are coping and responding to it. The first resource person, Prof. Nephtaly Joel Botor, discussed Filipino family dynamics during the pandemic. He talked about the evolution of the pandemic as a health crisis, which turned into a psycho-socio-spiritual one. He also mentioned that during this crisis, we tend to discover more about ourselves and that of our family members. We grow and cope with our physiological needs because when families are able to maintain their well-being they help in keeping the well-being of the larger community, as well. The second resource person, the Rev. Benji M. De Jesus, started his segment by stating the challenges we face and the vulnerability of children. Because of their young age, they are still mentally, emotionally, economically, and physically incapable to help themselves.
With this said, Rev. De Jesus brought up the importance of having a child-friendly, inclusive, and a safe environment inside the house, where children first learned about life. This is where they should learn good values and develop their characters. He also mentioned the church’s role to collaborate with different affiliations and group to provide resources to those in need.
The third session focused on the church and the community’s engagement in the local setting. Dr. Emiliano Q. Ibera III, the first speaker, discussed faith and community engagement. He highlighted the “faith,” including other faith traditions, broader area of spirituality, and its role to community engagement. He said faith enhances the quality of community engagement. People who have “faith,” he said, are people who have positive emotions. They are those who find ways to the ground and help communities in need and that the success and failure of these efforts depend on one’s choices and responses. We must be a community that is transformed and transforming, that can be transformed and impart transformation outside its community. Ms. Fennelien Stal, the second resource person, gave a detailed discussion on Church and Community Mobilization (CCM), which is an approach for churches to journey with communities for development based on its integral mission. She emphasized the CCM’s benefits to the church where they grow as a positive influence within the community, build relationships, help identify resources within them, help the church reflect on the Bible and its role to meet the needs of others and help themselves to become a growing community, sharing its experiences and achievements. This breeds self-reliance, sense of purpose, and sustainable change to the community it is in.
LPI decided to postpone the fourth and last session of the 2020 Learning Conference because of Typhoon Ulysses, which devastated most of Luzon. It pushed through last November 26 with the Rev. Lendehl Rey Sallidao as resource person. He discussed the importance of “looking back” as a way to verify and assess if we are still doing our job as the church in empowering children, families, and whole communities to address situations that victimize children. Finally, two youth organizations talked about their efforts amid the pandemic. Shelter Park Youth and Children’s Organization (SPYCO) enumerated its activities during the pandemic while Christine Joy Sasi from Children’s Association in Balangiga (CAB) told of the horrors of Typhoon Yolanda and how they recovered through their own efforts with the help of LPI, among others. They continued to conduct capacity-building activities and programs to develop the resiliency of churches and communities as well as to teach them about the rights and protection of children.
The 2020 Learning Conference series ended with Mr. Norman Franklin Agustin, LPI’s Executive Director, thanking and acknowledging everyone who made the event possible.
What was unthinkable due to the pandemic became a reality, thanks to online technology. The need to adapt, after all, is a skill that every social development group develop.