Amina came to visit our first NVC Workshop in 2007 in Ruhpolding through contact with Father Heinz Kulüke, and since then, she has taken part in each workshop, till 2016.
She lives with her husband and one of her daughters in Mindanao in the Philippines.
They, and also the rest of the family, have been “infected” by NVC, which resulted in the family receiving the prestigious Jolibee Family Values Award (this award for social engagement is given to some families in the Philippines each year).
Amina: “…my family is chosen among 6 Filipinos to be honored for the Jollibee Family Values Award, and this is basically because of our advocacy for peace, promoting Nonviolent Communication, and helping children to receive education and provide them with a safe environment.”
What is Amina doing in detail?
She is a teacher, and already before the workshop in 2007, she gave talks to the topics: peace, dialogue of the religions, Islam and the culture of the Philippines.
Our work in Ruhpolding touched her immediately and she quickly adopted NVC as her own with all of her enthusiasm.
Now she is travelling around the country, presenting NVC in jails, at the military, and at MyHome (Children in Conflict with the Law) in order to bring more and more people closer to NVC.
In 2016, she became a CNVC certified trainer, so far the only one in the Philippines.
Through the Philippines NVC Project 2015, her own activities and the family award, she is well known in the Philippines, and she gets more and more requests for NVC seminars.
Furthermore, in 2013 she founded in Mindanao a small house for orphans with the help of Arche Noah Foundation, the “Arche Noah Home”. It is supervised by her daughter Sarah, and currently accommodates 18 orphans who, before being given a place in the Arche Noah Home, lived in the streets and got their food out of the garbage container.
It has always been Amina’s dream to build an orphanage and be able to support these children.
Seeing how Sarah, Amina and her husband Nathan are dealing with each other, the children learn the language of nonviolence by living it. This is new to them, they were used to put each other down (in order to feel superior). And step by step this is changing: “…they can express their feelings and needs, and when they have a request, they can say it honestly.”
The children for their part transfer the ideas of NVC into their schools.
Amina will go on spreading NVC. She says: “NVC is part of my life and will continue to be part of my life.”