Philippines: Bai Masla Beng Campiao grew up during an acute phase of the fighting in Mindanao and she recalls witnessing extreme violence and being forced to carry munitions under her hijab to her uncles in the forest. “My relatives were asking me, ‘Please can you help us?’” Beng remembers. “One day I decided I would not be bullied anymore. I wouldn’t have guns anymore. If our relatives ask for help, we said we can help by paying tuition or buying a pen or paper. But we would not carry bullets anymore.”
She says the experience of violence gave her a commitment to healing that shaped her path as a nurse and now as a dedicated humanitarian worker on the front lines of crises. Today Beng leads the work of the Mindanao Organization for Social and Economic Progress (MOSEP), UNFPA’s essential partner in addressing the impact of the protracted crisis in Mindanao. MOSEP runs a network of nearly 20 Women Friendly Spaces. Dangenan nu mga babay is the Maguindanaon term which roughly means, ‘space where women with sore hearts can heal’.
Women Friendly Spaces are among the interventions of the “Resilient Livelihoods Development (RLD) for Women and Youth Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maguindanao programme supported by the Australian Government, and jointly implemented by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through partner organizations like MOSEP.
Amid the complex conflict landscape in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) -- due to clan feuds, armed conflict stemming from separatist movements, and challenges in transitioning to a fully autonomous region -- families in affected areas are forced to flee and sometimes stay in evacuation camps for extended periods of time. The Women Friendly Spaces provide a place for women to recover and access information and services in areas of cash support, nutrition and reproductive health. “There is always an on-and-off armed conflict and regular flooding,” she says. “If you are going to build a tent for women it lasts for six months, but we built this concrete and bamboo structure next to health clinics.”
Beng says they look at the resiliency of the projects and how it will be sustained for the long-term. The goal is to help the community increase their practices of accessing different services: regular prenatal checkup, visiting mental health specialists or a gender-based violence expert. “Someone that they can speak to, not because they want to complain or talk about domestic violence. They just go to women's spaces and they connect with someone there. It's women talking and it can relieve you. That's all inside this simple space.”
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She says there are no chairs as everyone is on the floors sitting on traditional woven mats. “You have to sit comfortably,” she says. “I say to women, ‘Once you enter this space at least for an hour or two, you can forget about what is happening at home. Forget what is happening inside the evacuation center. Forget what is happening between you and your family or between you and your husband. Just stay here.’ We can talk like that.”
“We don't look at women through isolated interventions and issues.” Beng says. “We see the whole, and we support mothers mentally, emotionally and physically, including their husbands and children. On a medical mission we provide maternal health, reproductive health and we have mental health support. We don't see pregnant women as just a ‘key population’ we need to reach. We look at women as a whole, women and the whole family.”
Beng says Islamic religious leaders have been some of the biggest supporters of MOSEP’s work due to discussions where they found Quranic support for family planning. “The Islamic perspective on any issue is critical in our discussions with communities. With all the issues we cover, we found a basis written in the Quran.”
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“With Muslim religious leaders we have awareness-raising information sessions in the community,” Beng says. “When people say “Family planning and Islam are not compatible,’ we discuss it. We talk about how you need to have a plan if you're going to have a good family. How are you going to manage your family to bring you a good, healthy child and a good relationship?”
“With religious leaders, we talk about child spacing for two to three years. It says in the Quran that it is not allowed that you are bearing a child and at the same time you're breastfeeding. That is child spacing.”
Beng says spacing means women can relax, men can relax. and women have time to take care of their children because she's not pregnant with another one.
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The community continues to be devastated by typhoons and floods that disrupt lives and limit access to lifesaving services. Beng and her colleagues at MOSEP nourish the network of women facilitators at the Women Friendly Spaces and scale up when emergencies happen.
Beng worked with UNFPA in 2022 when the Women’s Health on Wheels mobile birthing unit was deployed in the aftermath of Typhoon Paeng. The facilitators from MOSEP were the crucial ingredient in building acceptance about the container truck that holds a modern birthing clinic with lifesaving equipment. More than 20 women walked long distances, through flooded rivers to reach the WHOW and safely give birth with trained midwives.
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Mindanao Organization for Social and Economic Progress (MOSEP)
