Children of Multi-Faith and Culture of Peace-Building: From the Perspective of 373 Children and Faith, c2008
World Vision Development Foundation, Inc.
E-mail: yheleen_veso@wvi.org

This research study on knowing children’s perceptions on conflict and peace building in the cities of Davao and General Santos was done to define the next steps of World Vision’s Empowering Children as Peacebuilders initiative. It was done not to establish the rights and wrongs of the conflict or to apportion any blame on any individual or group. The intention was to know the children’s perceptions of the conflict and its effects on their lives. The research also included mapping out adults’ actions towards peace building.

The selection of children and adults as respondents was done randomly, but the decision on where to conduct the research was intentional. It is in the interest of the organization to understand the similarities and differences in perception between individuals from an area of visible conflict (General Santos City) and an area of latent conflict (Davao City), the latter being also the Hub of Learning of the ECaP project.

The aim of the research was to explore the children’s perceptions in different social contexts to find out how children can be realistically empowered as peace builders with respect to the following: (1) Adult/parental involvement in peace building; (2) Future advocacy strategies; (3) Current peace building initiatives; (4) Children’s participation and its risks; (5) Multi-faith and multi-cultural contexts; (6) Providing baseline data for measuring impact; and (7) Children’s existing support structures.