KRIS for Peace

Motivated by her family’s experiences in the conflict-affected southern Philippines, Arizza co-founded KRIS for Peace (KRIS) in 2008 with an aim to promote peace through education. Initially, KRIS began by building libraries and providing educational materials in vulnerable areas. Currently, the organisation’s focus is empowerment, leadership development, and capacity-building in young people to help them develop into peacebuilders. KRIS has organised and hosted the IsangBayan Peacebuilding Conference, the Extremely Together programme in partnership with the European Union and the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as its Edulkaw programme, and provided disaster relief in typhoon-affected areas of the Philippines. Through the Extremely Together programme, Arizza and her team have held a series of training workshops and conferences designed to train peacebuilders, while Edulkaw emerged during the pandemic to provide digital devices to young people who could not afford them.

Arizza attended the One Young World Summit in Bangkok 2015 as a Delegate Speaker, and was a returning Ambassador in Ottawa 2016. As part of the One Young World Community, Arizza was connected with the Kofi Annan Foundation. She was also featured in the book “We Have a Dream: 201 Countries 201 Dreams with Sustainable Development Goals”, written by fellow Ambassador, Taichi Ichikawa.

Since 2020, KRIS has trained over 3,000 young Filipinos through Extremely Together, with an additional 600,000 indirectly reached through related online information campaigns. The IsangBayan Peacebuilding conference was attended by 81 young Filipinos, with the online content reaching another 361,000 people. Another 70 students have been supported with the provision of digital devices through Edulkaw, while KRIS has also provided vital disaster relief to 3,280 people.

“I still share my experience with One Young World, especially because I work with a lot of young leaders. I tell them that the Summit is an example of a gathering that erases boundaries and that promotes peace and empathy because you have so many stories and experiences happening at the same time. Every time I meet a young leader I tell them to apply to the Summit.”