ACCESS Philippines Project

Bridging the Gap: Engaging a new generation in the southern Philippines in interethnic dialogue and conflict resolution.

Education to Support Peace in Ethnically and Religiously Diverse Societies

· This is a project awarded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, to the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), the International Training Office (ITO) of Northern Illinois University (NIU), and Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro City, the Philippines. Dr. Susan Russell (Director of CSEAS) and Dr. Lina D. Ong (Director of ITO) are the project directors.

· ACCESS Philippines Project goal is to foster interethnic cooperation and a variety of forms of conflict resolution in Muslim and non-Muslim students from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the Philippines. 

· The project hosts and promotes a four-week institute to Filipino adolescents to learn from the example of civic relationships and cultural diversity in American society and to understand contemporary conflicts in their community. Participants are expected to develop new perspectives to build understanding among the different cultural, religious, and political groups in the southern Philippines.

·The institute focuses on four teaching modules:

     1. Volunteerism and civil society, how civil institutions and organizations mediate relations with the national government and American citizens;

    2. Contemporary American institutions in state and civil society that support ethnic diversity, affirmative action, and religious pluralism;

      3. Premises and practices of conflict resolution;

    4. Ethnical, ritual, historical, and moral dimensions of similarity and difference that underlie majority/minority ethnic and political ties in Southeast Asia.

· The institute offered a variety of academic and cultural experiences to participants. They visited historical landmarks and civic organizations in the Midwest of the United States.