iEmergence

Building Pathways

OSMOSIS

Osmosis offers exposure to and participation in different indigenous leadership and community models; so that through the Osmosis experience, participants will be further empowered towards holistic transformation of indigenous communities—their own and others. It utilizes asset-based planning and development methodologies, with Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the core process, to engage the participants in the discovery of goals and dreams for their community for the present as well as the future. Osmosis is an experience of living life in local indigenous community where participants learn how to respond to the community’s needs and experience being both host and a guest in specific communities and various contexts.
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iEmergence recognizes that the task of developing a community is not exclusive to one organization alone. Although not everyone can be engaged in long-term community development work, everyone has skills and knowledge valuable for transforming communities. Different organizations and institutions all play a unique role in doing community development work and therefore their input is both valuable and necessary.

It is for this reason that a short-term internship-immersion model of the Osmosis program was developed. The participants for this model are primarily individuals who are not members of any of iEmergence’s partner communities but have the desire to learn how to use their skills and apply their knowledge to help further the work currently being done in the community.
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The internship-immersion model also becomes a venue for university students and individuals from other institutions to learn how to apply their theoretical/classroom learning in the field. Through Osmosis, participants are able to better understand the concepts that they learn in school and at the same time are trained to use the things that they know in actual field settings. Osmosis also provides its participants the opportunity to discover where their interest for future practice lie as they are able to try out how their respective disciplines can be used in the field.

On October 20—28, iEmergence had its first run of the Osmosis internship-immersion model with graduate and undergraduate students from the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University as participants. The participants went to an Ata Matigsalug community in Sitio Sita, Paquibato District, Davao City.