NorCot shapes youth for peace via sports, camping

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Ismael, Kenneth and Erwin, all grade two pupils belonging respectively to Christian, Muslim and Manobo tribes in a village here, had been distrustful towards one another until they were put together in one of the episodes of the Summerkadahan sports clinic cum camping program initiated by the North Cotabato provincial government to enhance amity and unity among its tri-people constituents.

During last week’s Brigada Eskwela, the three kids joined hands in cleaning up their school ground at the Central Elementary School at barangay Amas here and asked their parents and teachers to put them together in one room to cultivate the friendship they developed at the Summerkadahan basketball clinics.

The three kids, who even shared foods and tools at the clean-up drive, were among some 1,200 children from various public elementary schools gathered and trained on the basics of basketball in four different venues in the towns of Midasayap, Tulunan and Makilala and this city last month.

The four basketball clinics followed the province-wide summerkadahan last month which was attended by almost 3,000 elementary school children from 17 towns of North Cotabato and this city.

The annual children camping was conceived in 2010 by North Cotabato Governor Emmylou “Lala” Taliño-Mendoza to simulate her administration’s advocacy for shaping a “generation of united and friendly youth” as a potent force to address the threats of Moro secessionist and leftist rebellions in her province.

Local police and military authorities have been rallying the yearly children’s convergence, describing it as a long-term solution to sporadic cases of attacks by brigand Moro rebels and New People’s Army guerillas in some secluded villages of North Cotabato.

“There will come a day when rebellion would become irrelevant among our children who undergo proper psychosocial orientation and physical molding,” an official of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade said.

In her recent state-of-the-province address (SOPA), Gov. Mendoza told reporters that youth empowerment and orientation for peaceful and productive undertaking form part of her administration’s top priorities.

She said that developmental advocacies are easy to apply among children, likening them to young bamboo species that can be flexed according to desired shapes.

“The summerkadahan program seeks to promote unity and cordiality among children and at the same time develop in them a high sense of physical fitness and teamwork through sports,” the lady governor said.