Over 2,000 internally-displaced persons of the five-month long Marawi siege that transpired exactly three years ago last May 23 have been given psycho-social support under a corporate social responsibility project of Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank), the bank said.
Since its implementation in January 2019, LandBank, as program manager, has partnered with a local organization as program implementer to conduct various activities that have so far benefited 1,673 internally displaced adults and 455 internally displaced children in ten barangays and transitional shelters in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, LandBank said in a statement.
The activity was designed to provide space for community sharing and community-building among the displaced citizens and other individuals affected by violence. It also aimed to identify and prioritize issues within the communities and come up with common hopes and possible actions to address the identified issues.
“The program embodies the LandBank’s commitment to help communities grow and recover,” the bank’s President and CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo was quoted in the statement as saying. Since its implementation in 2019, “we were able to give hope to many of our brothers and sisters in Marawi City and Lanao del Sur, helping them rebuild their communities from the catastrophic impact brought about by the siege in 2017.”
To continue the conversations with internally-displaced adults, LandBank said it facilitated psycho-social support activities such as the “Mashwara Corners,” in partner-communities where participants shared their personal journeys. Meanwhile, for the internally-displaced children, the bank said it conducted a series of activities that included games, storytelling and learning sessions.
A unique feature of the program is the incorporation of eco-therapy where various workshops and hands-on trainings on natural farming were mounted “to share and emphasize its importance as an introduction to a sustainable way of living and healing,” LandBank said.
As part of the main components of the program, LandBank said it also trained trainers on psycho-social support, with a total of 101 graduates. “They eventually served as facilitators in the conduct of psycho-social support activities and other interventions for the conflict-torn communities,” LandBank said.
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