The Philippine Council for Peace and Global Education was founded as an affiliate of Global Education Associates (GEA) in 1979. A consortium of more than a hundred universities, colleges and secondary schools throughout the Philippines, the PCPGE promotes global education and policies that address local, national and global systemic causes of poverty, violence, conflict and environmental destruction. It focuses mainly on education, sponsoring programs and activities that help young people (eventual leaders of the country), teachers, administrators and parents work for peace and ecological security in their schools and communities. It has also run seminar-workshops for government officials to help them advance policies and programs for the protection of the environment in their respective areas of responsibility
PCPGE
Assumption Antipolo
Samtulong Highway
Rizal, Philippines
Tel: (63-2)665-6123
Fax: (63-2)950-2357
Activities
The PCPGE has helped organize citizen movements for free and democratic elections in the Philippines, and helps monitor the elections.
The PCPGE has organized teacher-training and faculty-development programs on peace and nonviolence, and global awareness throughout the Philippines.
The PCPGE conducts programs that increase environmental awareness in schools throughout the Philippines. For example:
Every year since 1990 PCPGE has held at least one summer Youth Ecology Camp for high school student leaders and teachers. The Ecology Camp has drawn participants from countries other than the Philippines, namely, Australia, Korea, and Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and Palau. The camp exposes participants to the most degraded ecosystems in the Philippines and to national parks and protected areas as well, with the intention of building in students a sense of personal responsibility towards the earth. The camp has been supported for years by the local Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and by the Metropolitan Environment Improvement Program (MEIP).
PCPGE has been conducting seminar-workshops on ecology and eco-spirituality for teachers, school administrators, parent-teacher associations (PTA's), members of religious orders, and local government officials. Like the youth ecology camp, these seminar-workshops are designed to help participants gain a sense of personal responsibility for the survival of the planet.
Miriam College, a PCPGE member, organizes its own ecology camps for teachers, non- teaching staff and students. It also conducts other activities in the field of environment education with the intention of raising public awareness of serious environmental issues.
The Center for Peace and Ecology, established in 1991 by Assumption Antipolo, a PCPGE member, operates an organic farm, herbal garden and eco-park, which are incorporated into PCPGE's seminars and ecology camps.
The Young Christians for Environment Rescue, an organization based at the Integrated School of the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, a PCPGE member, promotes zero-waste management and undertakes clean-up campaigns in the community. It also engages in consciousness raising and leadership training activities. The University is in the process of developing an Eco-Park in a 50-hectare property of the university in Granada - 20 minutes away from the main campus.
The PCPGE Junior Associates, a network of students from PCPGE schools who are committed to raising awareness of environmental issues and maintaining ecological balance through activities conceptualized, planned, and implemented by the students themselves, organizes an Ecology Week every year since 1993. During ecology week students undertake environmentally related activities in their respective school, such as tree-planting, recycling drives and symposia on environmental issues. Inter-school competitions such as essay writing, slogan writing, poster making, oratorical contests, junk art and on-the-spot paining are also held on the theme "Youth for Sustainable Development".
Since 1988, the organization, "Children and Peace Philippines," a member of PCPGE, has conducted workshops in 27 schools all over the Philippines.
The PCPGE cooperated in the production of the GEA video The Earth Covenant, and uses it to educate citizens on their role in promoting ecological security.
The PCPGE maintains linkages and conducts collaborative activities with other organizations, both in and out of the Philippines, with similar concerns. It is a member of Eco-Links, a network of organizations in the world concerned with environmental protection, which was formed following a World Congress for Education and Communication on Environment and Development (ECO-ED) in 1992 in Toronto, Canada. It is also affiliated with the Concerned Citizens Against Air Pollution (COCAP), Earthsavers, and the Recycling Movement of the Philippines.