KAMINKAP - Kabataang Mindanao Para sa Kapayapaan (Youth of Mindanao for Peace)

KAMINKAP, or Kabataang Mindanao Para sa Kapayapaan (Youth of Mindanao for Peace) is a private voluntary social development organization which focuses its work on the areas of peace and nonviolence, human rights, environmental care, personal empowerment and development (sexuality and reproductive health), and community empowerment and development. It attempts to bring the youth sector into mainstream society in Mindanao as working partners of civil society in addressing the issues therein. KAMINKAP combines the concepts of youth empowerment with the five areas mentioned under a sustainable institution that is youth-led.

KAMINKAP is composed of young Settler, Moro, and Lumad men and women, aged 21 to 35, from the campus, the community, and the professional sectors, who are workers and advocates from different fields. They have gathered to form a group that would address the overarching issue that the youth, as a sector, has been marginalized as stakeholders in Mindanao societal affairs. It is the intent of the members of KAMINKAP to enrich and strengthen Mindanao civil society with the full empowerment and involvement of the youth sector through structured programs and initiatives.

Vision: A united, empowered and contributory youth sector that is aware and concerned, actively participating in affairs of the land, and serving as co-catalyst of social transformation towards a united, peaceful, just, and prosperous Mindanao.

Mission: The mission of KAMINKAP is to promote the vital role of the youth in societal affairs by:

1. Empowering its leaders through volunteerism in the interwoven fields of peace-building, human rights, environmental care, personal empowerment, and community development for the peoples of Mindanao;

2. Empowering the youth sector as a whole through structured programs in helping to eradicate socio-cultural conflict, ecological imbalance and environmental abuse, structural violence, inter-religious animosity and antipathy, militarization, and socio-economic inequities;

3. Building partnerships with all sectors, institutions and agencies in building the foundations of lasting peace, justice and development among the peoples of Mindanao;

4. Building a federation of young peace-builders in the whole of Mindanao that collectively endeavors to advance peaceful coexistence, mutual tolerance and understanding between and among its multi-cultural inhabitants and educates them about the diversity and common historical and ethnic roots of the different tribes present in Mindanao through constructive peace-building; and

5. Advocating the institutionalization of laws, policies, programs and activities that promote the plurality of the people of Mindanao and advance peace through unity and reconciliation, justice, environmental care, personal empowerment, and community development.

6. Serving as a liaison or affiliate office for youth, youth-led, and youth-serving groups for peace, for human rights, for environmental care, for personal empowerment and development, or for community empowerment and development, requiring regular communication links with the national government, funding agencies, national media and in consultation with its partner organizations.

Objectives: 1. To set up and implement programs that is responsive to the needs of the youth sector, to the multi-cultural inhabitants of Mindanao, and the members of KAMINKAP in the fields of peace-building, human rights, environmental care and personal empowerment;

2. To provide technical assistance to organizations in developing their program in peace-building, human rights education and advocacy, environmental care, personal empowerment, and community development;

3. To undertake research and documentation of programs and activities that will help deepen the organization’s understanding and knowledge in (a) peacebuilding and conflict resolution, (b) human rights education and advocacy, (c) environmental care, and in (d) personal empowerment for the youth, how they are inter-related, and how they are properly and effectively promoted for the benefit the peoples of Mindanao;

4. To assist members and non-members in the development of strategies, plans and activities to integrate the culture of peace and its components in their structures, policies, programs and services;

5. To access funds (both from members and other institutions) to support the implementation of organizational policy programs.

Goals: 1. To strengthen the capacities of members and non-members in promoting, integrating the organization’s guiding principles and policy programs in their respective structures;

2. To build the capacities and skills of the youth for increased participation in leadership and decision-making in their communities and organizations through popular education;

3. To advocate for local, national and international agencies to be aware of the particular needs of the peoples of Mindanao and for local, national and international agencies to use their resources to address these needs;

4. To advocate for local, national and international agencies to use their resources in enabling and empowering the youth sector as co-catalysts towards the propagation and institution of a culture of peace in the Philippines.