Peace Camp, video win international awards

MANILA, Philippines - The Communication Foundation for Asia (CFA), a development communication organization based in Sta. Mesa, Manila, has won an international award for its Peace Camp project and its companion video documentary, Dear Peace.  

CFA has been actively involved in media training and production since its establishment in 1973, and has been a consistent winner of the Catholic Mass Media Awards for its radio and TV programs and children’s magazines.

The special international award is given jointly by the Toronto-based World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and the Brussels-based Signis (the World Catholic Association for Communication) to a film promoting human values. The award for CFA was announced recently by Fr. Peter Malone, who works with the Cinema desk of Signis, and Philip Lee, the deputy director for WACC Programs. WACC announces a joint award only during its World Congress every seven years while Signis decides on the joint award on the occasion of its World Congress every two to four years.

What makes this special human rights film award even more significant is that, according to Fr. Malone, it has been given separately by each organization since 2005. This has made CFA the first to receive the joint award and the fourth to receive the commendation from both groups.

Since the summer of 2006, the annual Peace Camps of CFA have enabled Christian and Muslim students to interact with each other and realize the many things they have in common, instead of the fewer things that set them apart. They go through several communication workshops, giving them creative opportunities to share their impressions of each other’s customs and religion, and to express their hopes for peace through the visual and performing arts.

The project has aimed to promote Christian-Muslim reconciliation and peace using the youth as agents of change. The results of the Peace Camp Project are shown in the documentary film Dear Peace, which has been exhibited and toured around the Philippines.