From battlefield to best BRECDA

Kuraisiya Hussin was enjoined by her uncle, a former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander from Duggo, Siasi, Sulu, to join the MNLF medical team and spearhead its Duggo unit in the mid-1970s. Single and just 15 years old then, she joined the movement in the belief that the Philippine government meant to carry out its plan to convert Muslims to Christianity. When the war was over, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education degree and became a teacher at the Duggo Elementary School .  

Twenty-five years after the war, Kuraisiya’s co-villagers began talking again about going back to the MNLF. So much discontent had been mounting in their hearts over how slow Mindanao seemed to be progressing, and over how much Duggo had been left behind in terms of development.  

It was at this time that AMORE Program entered Duggo. The teacher in Kuraisiya immediately welcomed the AMORE program. Her hopes soared high with the thought that her pupils could already enjoy better learning conditions at night in their respective homes, and thus, learn more.

Since Kuraisiya’s home is closest to the school, when the school has an activity for all its 225 pupils and 7 teachers that would thus require a sound system, she would allow a cassette recorder to be connected to her house. Their school programs are now alive with the sounds of songs and students can perform dance numbers to their hearts’ content.

More importantly, those who were recruited again by the MNLF, following the arrest of its founder, Nurrulujah Misuari, opted to forfeit their membership with the thought that peace and development are finally gaining ground in Duggo.

 In March 2005, at the culminating event of the first phase of the AMORE Program in Manila , the Duggo BRECDA was declared the best of 26 outstanding BRECDAs throughout Mindanao due to their demonstrated commitment to sustaining their systems and pursuing their own development