International Women's Month: Advocate of peace

In 2002, a group of women leaders belonging to Swisspeace Foundation, an NGO based in Bern, Switzerland started looking for 1,000 women from all over the world who are working for peace, most especially doing reconstruction and peace work in extremely dangerous surroundings; document their lives and work; and nominate them as a group to the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the Philippines, the search for nominees produced 27 exemplary women, 8 are from Mindanao, 3 from the Visayas, 2 from the Cordillera and the rest from Metro Manila. The women are involved in peace advocacy, governance, human rights, women's rights, inter-faith dialogue, education, justice, health, psycho-social rehabilitation, empowerment, migrants' rights, policymaking, peace negotiations, culture and the arts.

The book "Filipino Peace Women" chronicled the works of these 27 women-nominees to the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize as edited by Paulynn Sicam, co-coordinator for Southeast Asia PeaceWomen Across the Globe, and Olivia Tripon of Women's Feature Service, an initiative funded by UNESCO with the aim of putting women's perspective in mainstream media.

Although the 1,000 peace women did not win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, the organizers have made their point. This international project mounted by women for women has given due recognition the daily struggles of women across the globe as they stand up against violence and destruction, poverty, hunger and disease; women who believe that human security, not military victories, will bring about the just and lasting peace that we all desire.

In the Visayas, for example, WFS writer Marivir Montebon wrote of Abanse! Pinay partylist first nominee Teresa "Tessie" Banaynal-Fernandez as she "wages peace in the slums of Cebu".

Montebon says, "her (Fernandez') nomination to the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize as one of 1,000 women was just an additional feather in the cap to a staunch women's rights advocate." Tessie is the executive director of Cebu-based Lihok Filipina Foundation."

Born in Iloilo in 1953, Tessie is the second of seven children. Her persistence in pursuing unpopular advocacies such as domestic violence, gender sensitivity, good governance and environmental protection has helped change the lives of many women.

Lihok Pilipina's anti-domestic violence Bantay Banay (Family Watch) program has been adopted by the city government and by 70 cities and towns all over the country, effectively making domestic violence not only a public issue but also an issue of governance.

For Bantay Banay, Lihok Pilipina won in the institution category of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Triennial Awards in 2005. Cebu City was one of the three recipients of the Women Friendly City award in the Asia Pacific given by UN Habitat in 2004. The city government was also cited as a gender-friendly city by the national government's Galing Pook Program for Gender Responsive Governance. For this, Tessie was one of 14 awardees during the 41st Charter Day as an "Outstanding Cebuana".

Lihok Pilipina includes micro credit, production and marketing assistance, a welfare program for street children, water and sanitation, and women's education.

Tessie was alarmed by the low repayment rate by women in Lihok's micro credit program, and she realized that domestic violence had something to do with it, Montebon underscored.

"At one time, a mother complained that her husband broke all her trays of eggs when he was drunk. Another husband stole his wife's income from vending peanuts. These realities have opened my eyes that domestic violence has a lot to do with the economic impairment of our women beneficiaries," Fernandez pointed out.

A survey on domestic violence conducted by her office found that six out of ten women in the community were being battered. This led to the formation of Bantay Banay in 1992, a community-based and multi-stakeholder approach to end domestic violence.

With Bantay Banay, Lihok Pilipina trained police enforcers, social workers, councilors, lawyers and village chiefs in gender sensitivity and human rights to help them respond to domestic problems.

"It was time to realize that domestic violence and gender sensitivity are public concerns because these are commonly experienced by women," Tessie asserted.

Tessie's achievement is made known as we celebrate International Women's Month; as we take pride in women's roles in societal reform, and listen to women's voices and viewpoints, as well as experiences-especially the marginalized sector - that policymakers may learn about their plight and help alleviate their condition.

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