MORE NOTES ON SPIRITUALITY AND THE WORK PLACE

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

For this week’s column, I will continue sharing my notes on a subject which has enthralled me since joining the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP), the quest for a spiritual work place. I will report on some notes I took in reading “Transformation and the World of Commerce” by Jacqueline Haessly, included in the book “The New Bottom Line,” I cited last week.

The opening lines in the article immediately drew my attention and keen interest. She describes what is happening in the world today:

“The world around us is hurting, crying out in anguish for relief. The news media overflows with the sounds of this pain and affliction. We hear parents crying for the loss of their children due to gaor drug-related gunfire …

“We hear young ones whimpering from too many beatings, too many drugs, too little food, and too few playgrounds to renew their spirits. We hear women, men and children yelling in fear from domestic abuse.

‘We hear women, men and children yelling in fear of domestic abuse.

“We hear the elderly and the disabled weeping in loneliness, deserted by those they love.

“We hear the homeless moaning as they lie shivering at night.

“We hear women and men in offices, universities, factories, and the streets of our cities calling out against sexual and gender abuse.

“We hear children sobbing in shame from the exploitation of their young bodies.

“We hear lovers howling for partners maimed or dead in someone’s war.

“We hear prisoners in war-torn countries screaming in agony from battering and political torture.” (Paragraphing ours.)

The author notes the situation is known by many people:

“As corporate leaders, managers, workers and ordinary citizens, we grieve at this pain and at the pollution and desecration of this planet which we know sustains us. We agonize about these abuses and the complexity of the problems that confront us in this world, in this space, and in this time.”

Many of us “want to stop the pain and bring an end to the suffering.” We ask ourselves two questions:

-How is this suffering related to spirituality and business, or the work place; and

--What can we do as business people (and professionals) to address this suffering.

To rephrase it another way: what does this suffering have to do with commerce and our professional work?

Commerce has been defined since the early days as the “free and mutual interchange of goods, property and services in a way mutually beneficial to all parties…”  In the current economic, social and political situations through the world, however, commerce or the conduct of business does not work this way.

Author Haessly, who contributed this article and wrote the book “Rediscovering the Soul of Business,” observed:

“It is hard to engage in the interchange of most forms of commerce in communities racked by gunfire or other acts of violence or terrorism. It is impossible to engage in mutual exchange of goods, property and services when one is destitute and one’s children are starving. And it would be a travesty to think that children, torn from their families and forced against their will to engage in services that benefit a growing sex industry, are willing participants in any form of reciprocal communication.”

Hence, the answer to the key question about the relationship of current human suffering throughout the world and commerce or business is that  “… this suffering, and our ability as business people to address it, has everything to do with commerce and the work of our lives!”

The key operational question is this:  “How can we, as business leaders, attempt to blend commerce with consciousness in a way that brings both healing and wholeness to a hurting world? What does it mean to use our corporate power for the good of our society? To transform it for the benefit and well-being of the whole of humanity?”

To answer this question, which actually revolves around the issue of power and its relationship to soul, the author draws not from the business world but from “the wisdom and experience of … feminist theologians and spiritual leaders from diverse cultures and continents who not only address the question of soul, but also offer examples which express soul in commerce.”

She asserts:  “These women cross cultures and reflect the religious, economic, political and social experiences of women from widely differing geographical regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, India, the Pacific Islands, Central, North and South America. Each has contributed immensely to a discussion of power in the community and corporate setting. Each has given voice to the ways that business leaders use their power to help heal a hurting world.”

The first issue to consider is the exercise of power and its relationship to soul either in the business organization or the community: “What is power? How do we understand it? How do we use power in our personal life? How do we use power in our business? How is the use of power experienced by others in the corporation? What is our corporate culture in regard to power?”

Power itself is a neutral term “meaning simply to be able; to have potential.” The women theologians understand power, like everybody else, from personal and social experiences with political or economic power.

The author adds: “Some feminist theologians, describing past or current cultural, economic, political, religious, and social relationships between women and men, or between groups within or among societies, refer to the writing of others who link power to control and domination.”   Their views of power have less to do with ability or potential but rather with the exercise of power in terms of control and dominance.

Indeed Machiavellian interpretation of force, control and domination over another has for centuries formed a basis of training for government, military and corporate leadership. “Machiavelli urged the Prince to act in ways that limited the freedom of others and to acquire that which was not properly his. In this paradigm, neither the Prince – whose need for dominance over his subjects led to all manner of manipulative behavior, nor his subjects – who were left without the freedom to make decisions affecting their very lives- were free to reach their full potential, the very essence of the word power. Indeed, under the model suggested by Machiavelli, the Prince must live in a state of perpetual distrust and fear lest he be overtaken by enemies seeking conquest.”

Here is a key issue:  

“In the world of commerce, a corporate culture based on a Machiavellian model of dominance and control can lead to mistrust and suspicion between workers and managers, foster internal competitiveness between workers and departments, and drain energy which could be directed towards achieving corporate goals. Communities, corporations and governments that follow this model find themselves faces with widespread dissension and even rebellion as citizens and workers seek to exercise a voice in the workings of their life.”

The author observes further:

“Business leaders who want to succeed in today’s business environment know they need a different understanding of power. They acknowledge that when control is imposed from without, workers are less likely to sustain personal effort to achieve quality in either performance or service. They recognize that when power comes from within, it is reflected in an individual and group commitment to quality in achieving both personal and corporate work goals. They understand that today’s corporate setting requires a new leadership style, one based on cooperation, team building, and openness to shared decision making.”

This indicates a new concept of power which has nothing to do with control and dominance, one that is based on equality and justice. In this new context, power becomes a “blessing to live in love, in peace with justice, in community.”

“This power is never violent or destructive, ego-centered or domineering. This power is understood, motivated, and exercised by one’s set of values. It serves to foster, enhance, and nurture all of life.”ou

This is a power based on “a spirituality that sees a connectedness between oneself and all others who share life with us on this small planet we each call home. Such a spirituality affirms the diverse ways that women and men express their connection to each other, to their universe and to the Spirit God force Who gives life meaning.”

The book asserts it is this awareness that gives rise to spirituality programs in the work place. 

“People hunger for a sense of connection with a Spirit Being higher than themselves. They also long for a sense of connection to others and for a way to address the complex issues that impact on life … Spirituality, especially a global spirituality that affirms the diverse ways that people express this interconnection with each other and to a Higher Spirit or Power, satisfies this hunger and generates the spiritual power necessary to transform the world.”

For future columns, we will research on specific experiences dealing with this vision to bring spirituality to business or the market-place and in the conduct of one’s professions. For any guidance or suggestions on how best to proceed with this journey, kindly email me at: npestelos@gmail.com.

NMP/23 Dec. 2015/4.43 p.m.

SPIRITUAL VALUES IN THE WORK PLACE

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS                                                       

In my research on spirituality and organizations, I chanced upon a book, The New Bottom Line: Bringing Heart and Soul to Business, co-edited by John Renesch, an authority on transformative leadership, and Bill DeFoore, described as an author, psychotherapist, consultant and president of the Institute for Personal and Professional Development.

The book is actually a compilation of articles about spiritual values (not to be confused with religion) and the world of commerce. For this week’s column, I have taken notes on lessons and insights which can be useful in thinking about spiritual values both in business and development work.

The Foreword says that the book, rather than focus on individual spirituality, offers instead “new insights on what constitutes a spiritual workplace and what it can mean both for individuals and corporations in terms of fulfillment and accomplishment.”

Its Preface notes that “the study of larger philosophic issues involving the universe, human destiny and creative futures has been encroaching on the business community for the past several years.” Starting in the 1990s, organizational development theory and related disciplines have been invading, as it were, traditional business circles.

The Introduction, written by the co-editors, states that over the last two hundred and fifty years, materialism-based capitalism has become the dominant force in society, particularly in the industrialized world. It notes that in the mid-1700s, “society was presumed to be a moral, compassionate and relatively frugal marketplace, dependent on much less efficient means of production than the present day.”

In those days, business was presumed “to have a conscience and, even if it didn’t, there was limited negative effect it could have on the rest of society.” Travel and communication took months or years. Manufacturing was considered a craftsman’s art.

Over the past couple of centuries, however, “the Industrial Age has created a huge production-consumption system that is so complex, so vast, that it finds itself pulling all the industrialized world along its tracks.”

This system has become insatiable: “It has become an engine – a machine- that has only one goal: to produce the most profit for the owners of the enterprises of commerce. That is what it does best.” The Introduction quotes Roger Terry, author of Economic Insanity:

“Capitalism no matter whose model you like, requires a constantly expanding market, requires that luxuries become necessities, that we constantly improve and replace products in an endless upward spiral, that we extract an increasing amount of profit, and that we infuse new money regularly into the economic flow. Everyone agrees on this. These are the assumptions behind everyone’s solutions. No one questions the insanity of the system at its most fundamental levels.”

Industrialization requires people to think and act more like machines. The human spirit faces extinction. This phenomenon has been referred to as spiritual bankruptcy.  “It is the result of a loss of meaning in our lives and in our work,” the co-editors Renesch and DeFoore further assert in the Introduction to this landmark anthology, which further observes:

“As these two models overlap – consciousness and commerce – a new bottom line is being born. This new bottom line puts people and nature ahead of profits. It is not anti-business, nor against profit-making. However, some may see this kind of shift in priorities as a threat – a threat to the system that has become so powerful that nothing has been able to slow it down so far.”

Amidst the growing disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the US and the world, “the human spirit reminds our consciousness of our humanness – of our rootedness as spiritual beings. The new bottom live values meaning, diversity, integrity, caring, service, community, connectedness, creativity, intuition, balance and grace. It challenges the old bottom line values of toughness, wealth-amassing for its own sake, stress, domination, control and individual heroes.”

The rest of the 350-page hardbound edition of the book presents the views and insights of 30 contributors who have explained and documented in the process this emerging trend to reflect spiritual values in the market-place, in the world of business and mega capitalism.

Let’s try to pick some gems from this valuable collection of insights and lessons on spiritual values in the work-place:

In business, energy comes from many different sources familiar to most us – ambition, the many forms of security, recognition, self-satisfaction, and completion.  Spirituality or adherence to spiritual values is a “lesser understood source,” which is not to be equated with the promotion of specific religions in the work-place. In a Workplace Values Survey done in the US, a majority of those surveyed “acknowledged some form of spiritual ritual – prayer, meditation, or services of some kind.

A remarkable fifty-five percent claimed to have experienced ‘personal transformation,’ or epiphany of some sort, mostly in the past five years.”  This indicates a hunger for spiritual values in the work-place.

On the subject of business spirituality, the article quotes this passage from a book co-edited by Renesch and Bill DeFoore: “To us, ‘business spirituality,’ may sound like an oxymoron, but if the ancient insight that business has its own divine patronage is difficult for us to comprehend, it only shows us how far we have moved away from religion. Business has found meaning and relevance to us as individuals and as a society, more profound than a secular mind might be capable of imagining.”

The book further asserts: “The relationship between business and community whether local or global, is so serious as to touch upon ultimate values. The business person who seeks only to exploit the relationship for personal gains fails to perceive theological roots of business, the fact that business is deeply involved in matters of ultimate meaning. Ethics in business is not a tangential concern, but speaks to the very heart of business life.”

Here is what the book says on profit: “Sometimes when I speak to business people about the soul in their work, they ask anxiously about profit, the bottom line. If we make profit the ultimate concern of our work, then the soul has no recourse but to appear in negative ways – as low morale, symptoms among workers, conflict society and even poor quality of products.”

Renesch further says in this article on Spirity & Work : “Spiritual values, intuition, community, openness, trust, love and caring, reflection, holistic or systems thinking – these ideals are bridging gaps that have grown wider over the past couple of centuries. As bridges, they will help us reunite with those parts of ourselves that we have kept separate so we can begin to bring all of ourselves to work everyday. When this integration occuse, we find renewed passion and meaning in our work.”

The contributors in this book are talking about spiritual values in the work-place, with focus on business enterprises, but their insights may help us in our reflection on how spiritual values can reinvigorate our development work. This is to say that development planners and implementors may consider how infusion of spirituality may also succeed to enhance the sustainability of projects. It may infuse added energy in undertaking activities and link more effectively the work of project planners to not only to the hearts and minds of the poor, but to their soul as well.

While reading the book, half of brain was thinking about this darkness that continues to hover over us as a country, the greed and indifference of our political leaders and the elite classes. The forthcoming political exercise provides as an opportunity to instill spirituality in our businesses and development work that we may find the courage to fight evil wherever it manifests itself to obstruct the divine spirit in all of us.

We must build strong work teams and organizations with core spiritual values. In his article, The Spirit of Team, Barry Heermann, writes:

“Modern organizations stand at the edge of an abyss. Never before has change pressed in so unmercifully: from rapidly changing markets, doing more with less, multicultural business contexts and downsizing to constantly changing technologies. Simultaneously, organization stakeholders are expecting and demanding effective response to the upheavals of the day: from the environmental crisis, the breakdown of the family, and the widening gap between rich and poor to a multitude of stresses in modern life. A fundamental shift in organizational capacity and capability must be brought forth.”

That shift will require affirming spiritual values in the work-place, business and development work, as articulated in a speech by Vaclav Havel, president of Czechoslovakia:

“Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe towards which this world is headed – be it ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization – will be unavoidable… The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility.”

Indeed spirituality in the work-place is needed. Now I rest my case. #Spiritualityinbusines

NMP/19 Dec 2015/5.30 a.m. 

PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Every time Christmas comes around, I remember my maternal Grandmother. She took care of myself and my younger Sister while Mother worked in a desiccated coconut factory in a nearby town all through our childhood  and adolescent years. How she would prepare us for Christmas day made up a large part of what I remember of those early years.

First, she made sure that poor as the family was, we would have something new – new pair of shoes, clothes, as it was the case with other families in our barangay. Christmas is the time when family members ought to have something new. Whoever started that tradition was a marketing expert. With the chilly air of the season, the Christmas songs filling the air, and the gift-giving parties in schools, offices and localities, we all ended up as willing victims of marketing in preparing for this celebration of our faith.

I recall our Inay Tanda – that’s how we call our grandmother, accompanying us to our relatives both in my father’s  and mother’s sides one after  another on Christmas and the days before the New Year.

All through our high school years, the routine remained practically the same, preparing for these visits by buying something new to wear, visiting relatives and receiving cash gifts from them which would usually compensate for the amount spent for the new items that Inay Tanda would buy for us.

Indeed preparing for Christmas was much, much simpler when we were younger. Life has become complicated in succeeding decades and, at first glance, with all the elaborate decorations in the homes, offices and in the streets, families and local communities have missed out seemingly on the simple message of Christmas – to rediscover our affinity with Him who was born in a manger.

Our faith is anchored on this hope for redemption, something we can realize by doing good for ourselves and our neighbors through deeds which reaffirm our common humanity as defined by enduring values during our temporal existence here on Earth.

Sounds a mouthful, but I have come to believe that the best way to prepare for Christmas is to be alone with oneself for at least one or two days and do some meditation not only how personal and family goals have been met , but how we have tried to help those who are in need.

It is almost Messianic, but this is the only way we can reaffirm our common bond with the rest of humankind especially with those who are more burdened than others.

How can we be a person for others while we pursue goals specifically for ourselves and our immediate family? This is the key question that we need to ask during meditation. Caring for others, especially the poor, is quite a difficult task . It requires vast investment in time and money that otherwise will be used for personal pursuits. In this sense, helping others will mean quite a sacrifice on the part of the person or a group.

In the essay on “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson, guru of Transcendentalism, had this to say on this matter:

“Do not tell me, as a good man did today, of my obligation to put all men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent I gave such men do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which they now stand; alms to sots, and the thousand-fold Relief Societies; - though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is  wicked dollar, which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.”

This is an extreme option to take but some people prefer this based on the Darwinian principle that only the fittest survive and those who are “helpless are and ought to be doomed to extinction.”  Which is, of course, contrary to the belief of most religions.

To most people, the ability to help is not a philosophical question. Nor it is a question of motives behind the gesture of helping that by-standers delight in speculating. Whatever the motives as long as the service is delivered to the intended beneficiary is commendable in itself.

 More often it is question of finding the time and other resources to help that is the primary concern.  Unless one belongs to an organization that is financially endowed and capable of mobilizing paid staff to facilitate delivery of much-needed services, it will always be a competition for time, money and other resources between personal and social goals.

 Having social enterprises is a worthwhile strategy to pursue for some development organizations. They earn profit from their businesses which enables them to avoid extinction, but they also manage to pursue development objectives in terms of actual service delivery to specific disadvantaged groups or provide skills and employment to families in need.

In preparation for Christmas, a season for cleansing one’s soul of multiple sins, e.g., self-conceit and arrogance, I will try to resolve through meditation some of these issues related to the survival of local organizations, specifically those pursuing self-help initiatives among disadvantaged groups.

I would like to explore more deeply this practice of  sharing personal experiences which I have seen in all organizations of varied persuasions: from the Legion of Mary in my adolescent years, to the Nationalist Corps and like-minded organizations from the political left in those exciting days on the campus, to all sorts of religious or faith-based organizations, including those affiliated with Habitat for Humanity International, in meetings of Narcotics Anonymous I was invited to observe, and now with the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP). Indeed all religions are correct in the pursuit of self-transformation goals.

I have just finished a three-month orientation course and I was amazed at how virtual strangers would share their experiences in their own families, the problems they encountered and how they were able to overcome constraints through application of spiritual values. Outside this particular organizational context, it would be embarrassing to tell stories about family quarrels, marital infidelity, addiction to gambling, a personal quest for meaning and salvation, but for the first time in my life, 

I was hearing their stories of human frailties and the heroic struggle to overcome these with courage , the help of family and friends, and the guidance of  a Higher Being “who was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us,” or conceptualized in so many ways by so many creeds and religions through the ages.

Now I must go back to this meditation mode the week before Christmas and, hopefully, gain insights on what has eluded us through forty years of professional community development work – a network of people’s organizations able to decide on their own to create a powerful social force that we may have this sought-after kingdom of equality, justice and prosperity for all.

Spirituality or adherence to common human values has been the missing link through all the past efforts and sacrifices of development professionals and workers we have had the privilege and honor of working with in the past. Now a new journey begins as we prepare for this blessed season. #Development+spiritualvalues

How to Support Bohol's First Drug Rehab Center

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Now that Bohol’s first drug rehabilitation center is about to operate this month, it may be good to talk about how we can support it. Rene Francisco, CEO of the FITWBK (Farm It Works Balay Kahayag) Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, arrived the other day with the technical and administrative staff to finalize and implement plans to renovate and equip the facility and have everything in place in accordance with existing guidelines.

By this time, the Municipal LGU of Baclayon and the barangay councils within the immediate catchment area (barangays Laya, Montana and Cambanac) have been oriented on the policies and procedures of the Center. Once it is ready for full operations, the newly-formed staff from the partners, Family and Recovery Management Center from Minglanilla, Cebu and the It Works Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, will formally invite representatives from the Provincial Government, the various agencies, faith-based and civil society organizations to formally open discussion for possible partnership.

The facility is located at the Balay Kahayag Training Center compound in Laya, Baclayon. A number of queries have been received on admission procedures and we have referred these to the executive staff composed of Rene Francisco, COO; Jimmy Clemente, CEO; and Alain Alino, Center Director.

Queries can be made with Director Alino at Mobile number 09173250252 or with the Administrative Officer, Martin Cinco at 09774506285 or at email raemartin-cinco@yahoo.com.

The Pestelos family, which owns the BK facilities that will be improved upon and used by FITWBK, and the Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF) which has carried out intensive research and consultations on having a drug rehabilitation center in the province and undertaken liaison work with the two partner entities, are not part of the management nor of the administrative staff of the facility.

This is to enable the FITWBK to be managed as a business enterprise to ensure its financial sustainability. Its clients will be charged standard or regular fees. The management will exercise functions as befit a commercial entity to ensure financial viability for the enterprise.

Although a business concern, it will be run as a social enterprise, with its profit used to operate the business and the profit to be channeled to contribute to the objective of helping increase the access of drug abuse victims from among the youth to high-quality services offered by the FITWBK.

It has been agreed between BLDF and the FITWBK Management that for every ten (10) paying clients, an additional two (2) will be non-paying who will be recommended jointly by DSWD and BLDF as coming from indigent families. This number will still not be enough to cope with hundreds of young people who have become drug abusers in recent years, most of them from marginalized families who will not be able to pay for center fees although these are much lower than those charged in similar facilities outside the province.

This is a critical area needing support from the Government, private sector and civil society organizations. They may want to sponsor clients to the Center on a sharing basis with the individual families and the Center management. The latter has had experiences on such arrangement and it will conduct an information campaign on this vital aspect of its operations.

The other opportunity for supporting FITWBK is to help in addressing the tremendous demand expected of its services in a province where around 70% of reported crimes are drug-related. This is an area requiring determined action from both Government and civil society organizations.

Despite the presence of the FITWBK, which is still limited in its intake capacity in relation to the huge demand for pre-treatment or diagnostic and treatment services, we still need to have a more systematic approach to broaden access to such services.

A contact point is needed between a service facility and the families affected by drug abuse and pave the way for their drug-related problems to be systematically addressed. Some ways must be found to relieve FITWBK of some tasks related to this need so it can focus on the treatment aspect of its operations.

As I said in previous columns, almost fifty percent  in a 21-column run I did on the subject of drug addiction since early this year, we need to establish what is called Outreach and Drop-In Centers (ODICs) by the UN or Substance Abuse and Family Enhancement (SAFE) by other agencies. Whether called ODIC or SAFE, this facility has these common objectives:

a.       To provide early intervention services and counseling to drug addicts to prevent relapse;

b.      To provide motivation and counseling to the addicted persons, and co-dependents/family members to seek treatment;

c.       To involve the community and significant others to help the drug addicts and their families in their recovery journeys;

d.      To reach out and provide basic information, knowledge and literature to addicted persons who do not want to appear in the treatment center;

e.       To provide home-based treatment for those in remote areas, particularly women where treatment facilities are not available;

f.       To provide a place and encourage the meetings of the support groups for recovering persons and co-dependents;

g.      To facilitate vocational training, job placements, develop self-employment and income generating activities for recovering persons; and

h.      To help recovering persons to join mainstream society as productive citizens and continue their recovery journey successfully.

The activities undertaken in this facility are as follows:

1.      Outreach visits;

2.      Early intervention strategies such as pre-treatment counseling, home-based detoxification;

3.      Short-term outpatient or home-based treatment;

4.      Referrals to hospitals or drug treatment centers;

5.      Organization and conduct of education and training programs by professionals on drug awareness,

6.      Training of outreach support staff and volunteers,

7.      Skills training; and

8.      Encouraging family members to come to the centers for counseling.

In a previous column, we have put the details on the specifications and costing for such a vital facility. I still think the Church and faith-based organizations will be in a better position to initiate and manage it at this time as support to the drug rehabilitation center which will soon be operational but still with limited capacity to address all the needs brought about by this enormous drug addiction problem in our province.

The other support needed will be the organization of a Core Training and Operations Team (CTOT) composed of agencies and other entities with programs or projects which can be linked to drug prevention and rehabilitation.  As listed before in previous studies and proposals, this team may include: the Provincial Government of Bohol, the various LGUs preferable in those most affected by the drug abuse problem, Holy Name University and other academic institutions with psychology courses, Kasing-Sining Association, and representatives from the Church and other faith-based organizations.

This team will require intensive training on how to help implement the various initiatives related to supporting the drug rehabilitation center, the ODICs or outreach facilities that have been proposed to relieve the pressure off the pioneering facility, and to prepare for a more systematic collaborative efforts on the part of various sectors in carrying on the task of addressing the so-called drug menace in our province.

This team may have an inter-agency composition or it can be based in one agency or NGO and given the authority with counterparts from other entities. It will have to be trained and mobilized to produce the following outputs vital to this initial phase of an evolving Provincial Drug Abuse Prevention and Rehabilitation Assistance Program (DAPRAP):

-A systematic plan for doing community-based orientation and consultation activities in priority

areas agreed upon with FITWBK;

-A resource mobilization and fund raising campaign to be able to raise funds for a working

Secretariat and to implement key activities;

-A clear plan on how to raise funds to enable clients from indigent families gain access to the

services from the Center;

-A plan to generate support and participation from potential partners (LGUs/CSOs; Provincial

Government; Kasing Sining; Holy Name University; University of Bohol; BISU; and other

academic institutions; the Catholic church and other faith-based organizations; CSOs/NGOs;

corporations and the business sector;

-A plan for tapping support from the UN and international donors.

In a society such as Bohol which is known for families and constituencies with high

respect for authority, the initial steps to take in the fight against drug abuse will require a clear

call from the leadership at family and up the hierarchy of mandated and official governance. A

clear and persistent call from formal and informal leaders must now be heard not only about

arresting drug pushers but, more importantly, in making drug abuse victims undergo counselling

and a recovery process eventually.

I think most people in the province want a drug-free Bohol but they have not found a united voice to say it.  I sense that once the FITWBK and several outreach facilities are in place, the province shall be in a better and more effective position to launch a multi-sectoral approach to the drug addiction problem which now threatens the present and future of most families in our province.

Then it will be time for our leaders and people to talk about the Bohol they want. I am sure they will say, with few exceptions, they want a drug-free province.

 For comments, email npestelos@gmail.com

NMP/06 Nov. 2015/8.03 a.m. 

Outreach Services for Drug Addiction Cases

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

The recently-concluded consultation meetings with barangay councils in the immediate catchment area of the emerging drug rehabilitation center, to be known as the FARM It Works Balay Kahayag (FITWBK) Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, has shown that we need to establish a network of outreach services units in support of this facility. The consultative activity undertaken just recently in the barangays of  Laya, where the FITWBK will be located, and the adjoining barangays, Cambanac and Montana, in the municipality of Baclayon has validated the need for such outreach services. Otherwise, Bohol’s first drug rehabilitation center will not be able to cope with the number of drug addiction cases that will have to be attended to which will require comprehensive assessment, referral and treatment.

I listened intently and took notes as Alain Alino, center director, engaged the barangay council members on a) the gravity of the drug addiction problem to be addressed in each barangay;  b) what must be done immediately in preparation for the full operations of the center.

For the first key concern, I brought along our compilation of newspaper clippings on the drug abuse issue, now in five thick “Columnar Books,” and passed them around. No expression of shock nor surprise at all from those who attended the meetings.

Perhaps they were by this time used to seeing pictures of people shot dead in broad daylight or that they were able to adjust to the grim reality brought about by drug-related crimes. In one barangay, they matter-of-factly mentioned during the meeting about a male drug addict who committed suicide by electrocuting himself! A cruel and brutal way to die, but I did not hear any strong response to it by way of comment. I had the uneasy feeling that they were thinking the person deserved to die this way because it was his fault he became a drug addict.

In all their accounts of the drug addiction situation in their neighborhood, there seemed to be a general acceptance about it, a laid-back, matter-of-fact attitude about a personal or family problem. Since it was not discussed as a problem in any of their previous meetings, I concluded that the leaders of the barangays and their constituents were treating this as purely family business and not the concern of local governance at all.

As the discussion progressed in each of the three meetings, I came to realize that this seemingly passive attitude about the problem could be due to: a) lack of full knowledge about drug addiction as a brain disease and that it needs systematic treatment and post-treatment interventions; and b) a self-imposed denial of the problem due to perceived high cost of treatment which the family could not possibly afford.

For both key concerns, each of three barangay councils were able to identify something in common. Everybody agreed that an outreach facility is urgently needed to serve as initial contact point for advice, initial testing or assessment and  referral to an institution which can provide the appropriate treatment for family members with a drug addiction problem.

The latter may include home-based or non-residential treatment which is less costly than institutionalized treatment and care.

In previous columns, I have referred to this support outreach facility as ODIC or Outreach Drop-In Center as used by the UN agency which piloted this concept in several countries, including the Philippines. I learned from colleagues of the two drug rehab centers helping us that this is similar to what was piloted in Ozamiz City with the acronym SAFE or Substance Abuse Family Enhancement facility.

Whether named ODIC or SAFE, it can serve the purpose of providing vital information to affected families about the nature of drug addiction affecting any of their members, their relative severity of the affliction and the appropriate treatment required.

The result will then be a sound basis for determining the costs, which may be affordable after all. Our colleagues from both the FARM Recovery Center and the It Works Chemical Dependency Treatment Center that they will be flexible in their costing, that the costs can be negotiable, based on the ability to pay of families deserving of financial assistance.

The costing can be realistically estimated at the ODIC-type facility which can be established to take the load off the drug rehab center during the diagnostic or pre-treatment phase.  The next question is: how do we establish the ODIC-type facility? In previous proposals that we prepared prior to this recent arrangement regarding the FITWBK, we gave details about the physical infrastructure and staffing required and the costing, and we proposed that the facility be initially under the management of the Church or any faith-based organization.

This proposed strategy was based on our thinking that during critical times, families burdened with problems could relate more to religious institutions rather than to secular ones. I think this is an area where partnership with the religious sector will be quite effective in addressing the key concerns I have cited. Our advocacy for this outreach facility will necessarily include getting faith-based organizations to get interested in taking up responsibility for this missing link in the current strategy.

We cannot burden the pioneering entity with most of the activities that belong to the pre-treatment phase so that its technical staff can focus on the treatment aspect of the rehabilitation process.

The discussions during the barangay consultation meetings further strengthened the resolve of both the Center staff and our NGO to devise effective strategies to organize families burdened with the drug addiction problem more effectively. It is only through an organization that these families can mutually learn to mobilize resources together, share learnings in dealing with a common problem and, on the whole, be a significant social force to address the current drug menace in our midst which remains unattended by sound policies and programs.

Finally, we would like to say, we are energized by the enthusiasm that everyone exuded during the barangay meetings. Everyone would like to be part of the emerging movement for a drug-free Bohol. We hope our readers will join us in providing support to the pioneering drug rehabilitation facility and help us prevent future social problems due to untreated drug addiction among our people, mostly the youth.

For the provision of much-needed outreach services to families burdened by the drug addiction problem, we hope and pray the Church and faith-based organizations will join us in this crusade to save souls and win the hearts and minds of more people to our cause. As pointed out during the discussions, drug addiction causes more damage than the strongest typhoon or earthquake. It destroys both our present and future.

For comments, email us at: npestelos@gmail.com.

NMP/31 Oct 2015/3.12 a.m.

BEARERS OF HOPE

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Each time I walk around our project sites, mostly those where we have partnered with the Church and people’s organizations, as well as with local governments, in building transition core houses after the destructive earthquake two years ago, I become convinced more and more that what we need in our province and the country as a whole is hope, huge chunks of it, served with prayers and large helpings of projects, not mere slogans or rhetoric.

I am convinced that the families we assisted with transition core houses to help get them out of tents deserve to be listened to and somehow engaged in something for the long term to further nourish their newly-found hope for the future, their families and local communities and the country eventually.

I believe that the assistance given to the earthquake victims, mostly in the form of cement, plywood, nails and other construction materials, were actually investments not only in the building of temporary or permanent shelter, but in a more meaningful sense, they were actually investments in building hope among those rendered hopeless by a natural calamity beyond the control of the government, the Church or any other entity.

Hope is almost always the first casualty in a disaster, whether man-made or not. If we see it this way, then it becomes easier for us to persevere in our task to help people rebuild their homes We will believe that in doing so, we are actually putting in place the building blocks of something that our country seems to be in short supply these days – hope.

These were the thoughts swirling in my head when I, along with three others from our NGO, had a surprise visit to Angilan, Antequera where we had partnered with families who sought refuge in a chapel after the earthquake. The chapel eventually gave way due to the series of aftershocks and the old women and children of 17 families found shelter in a waiting shed while the menfolk made do with tents they themselves fashioned out of used tarpaulin and other materials.

Their liberation from the crammed waiting shed and makeshift shelter was a high point in the race against time barely two months after the disaster. Now, two years after the quake, a community has risen and their hope for a better life is made evident by the following:

-All 11 children or young people from this project site are all in school: college, 4; high school, 

4; and elementary, 3.

-All 7 carpenters from 15 families living in the main area of the project site are all employed in either the town or Tagbilaran City;

-Piped water is available from the municipal system on certain hours for which each family member contributes Php 10 per month;

-Electricity has reached the community, each family paying from Php 97 to Php 100 depending on usage;

-UNICEF through Catholic Relief Services has provided a toilet to each house built based on agreement between the latter and our NGO, Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF);

-Each of the families has entered into agreement with the landowner that Php 50 be paid monthly as rental or as contribution to the tax of the property per month over an initial five-month period with ten percent increase annually after which the rate will be negotiated with the landowner(s);

-The “dajong” or mutual aid societies giving aid for burial services has been revived this time with an expanded membership of 25 due to admission of families from the nearby puroks;

-The “dajong” has added another service, that of being source of micro-loans to members;

-Two families are making doormats out of coconut coir provided by a party list group;

-Two families are raising a pig each at the backyard as source of income to pay for school fees and other expenses after three to four months of caring for them;

-A family has been allowed by the landowner to till 1/4 ha. as ricefield out of the 25-hectare estate with one-third of harvest as his share.

-All 15 families in the main project site have built all kinds of extensions, such as porches, expanded kitchens, dining areas, salas indicating new aspirations following relative land security due to agreement with the landowner(s);

-Homeowners put up curtains, plant ornamentals around the house, hang up family photos, all indicating they have found a place they can call their home.

-The lone sari-sari or convenience store provides basic necessities without the families going to the town to buy them.

During the consultation after the visit to the houses, the representatives of families present said they would need some help to expand their pig raising project. This visit confirms earlier observation that after the house build, efforts must be exerted by the proponent agency or the partner NGO to go back to the partner families and explore ways and means to help families identify livelihood opportunities.

Most likely, they have already identified these opportunities and are doing their best to create products or offer services which will result to some cash income for the family. It’s not necessary that we ourselves become the source of livelihood ideas. In the case of the project site in Angilan, they seem to know what they want to further build the community out of  hope, faith in themselves and the Great Unseen.

We were about to go to the other project site in Pangangan , but I was reminded I had to go to the chapel in Dampas for my first confession since I left the church when I was fourteen years old. I did return to the fold and attended, I recall, one spiritual one-on-one retreat with a Jesuit priest, Fr. Cavan, at their retreat house in Cebu in 1987.

I recall I was not made to do any confession stuff. Instead, I was made to do the stations of the Cross alone on a hill and to say whatever I want to say at each stop  e.g. in anger, to question God, to shout or scream my heart out, whatever. For one hour, I took the journey and was astounded to find at the end of the last station, a trellis extending for almost fifteen meters full of bougainville flowers and I had to walk underneath it.

When I emerged, I remember being met by the glare of a bright sun at high noon. The Jesuit fathers must have planned it that way for me to realize hope awaits us at end of a bleak and chaotic journey of inner conflict and self-flagellation.

Along the way from the project visit in Angilan to observe the second anniversary of  the Magnitude 7.2 earthquake which hit our province two years ago to the confession and Mass in Dampas, I read again from my digital this advice from Pope Francis:

“To all of you, I repeat: Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! And not only that, but I say to us all: let us not rob others of hope, let us become bearers of hope!” #BLDFwarrior

NMP/16 Apr 2015/6.45 p.m.