DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 November) — Multiawarded singer-songwriter Joey Ayala is back in Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) for a homecoming concert on Monday, November 23.
Initiated by ADDU’s Center of Psychological Extension and Research Services (COPERS), “Kuwentong Atenista ni Joey Ayala” will be held at the Finster Hall Auditorium in the Ateneo Jacinto campus at 7 p.m.
Ayala, who obtained his AB Economis degree from ADDU in 1979, envisions “Kuwentong Atenista” to be an intimate review of his student days in the Ateneo and how this had shaped his music and advocacy.
Ayala finished elementary and high school at the Ateneo de Manila University before his family moved over to Tagum in Davao del Norte and later Davao City. He moved back to Manila in the early 1990s with his band, Bagong Lumad.
Ayala is now vice-chair of the Committee for Music of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), representing Bagong Lumad Artists Foundation, Inc. (BLAFI).
“Known for his songs’ relevance of subject matter – environment, society, values – and his use of indigenous instruments in his recordings and performances, Ayala exemplifies rare integrity in pursuit of his life purpose-in-progress: To use his creativity and originality in the fields of music and education towards a continually-evolving global Human and Filipino consciousness,” COPERS said in its press release.
Tickets are available for a donation of P300. Proceeds from this fundraiser concert will be used to fund the initiatives of COPERS, the community engagement arm of the Ateneo de Davao University’s Psychology Department.
Conceived in 2006, COPERS has been actively engaged in providing psychological services as appropriate to the peculiar concerns of communities in the Philippines, especially those in Mindanao.
Currently, the center is involved in a number of projects relevant to peacebuilding, security sector reform, and disaster response, among others. It was among the first to respond to the psychosocial needs of survivors of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in 2011 and of super typhoon Pablo in Compostela and Davao Oriental provinces as well as some parts of Agusan del Sur in 2012.
It also deployed teams to assist survivors of the Zamboanga City standoff in September 2013 and of super typhoon Yolanda in Leyte in November that same year
COPERS is composed of ADDU psychologists, mental health practitioners and research affiliates, and trained volunteers generating empirically-based analysis of community needs, networking with duty bearers and service providers, and implementing novel psychological applications as appropriate to the peculiar concerns in the region.
It sustains its various concerns for psychoeducation, intercultural dialogue, peace psychology, security sector reform, organizational effectiveness, mental health management, crisis intervention, psychosocial support and trauma rehabilitation, and post-disaster recovery planning.
According to its organizational profile, among the major thrusts of the Center is “to educate on community trauma and the need to address it using culturally-appropriate methodologies.” It also seeks to understand how Mindanao communities experience trauma, help stakeholders assess community resilience factors, train volunteers for psychosocial response, as well as network for the provision of support skills training for post-disaster recovery and protection needs.
“By training psychosocial volunteers on the narrative technique for psychological first aid, COPERS hopes to create the multiplier effect that would capacitate vulnerable communities to deliver informed parapsychological interventions in the aftermath of disasters,” it said.
“Kuwentong Atenista ni Joey Ayala” is initiated by COPERS with support from The Asia Foundation, SAMASIKOFIL, First Scout Ranger Regiment of the Philippine Army, CSL Printing Press, Reynaldo and Gloria Coronel, Blugre-Abreeza, Edward Zaldivar, Igy and Pam Castrillo, Redemptorist Community, Initiatives for International Dialogue, Polomolok Water District, RD Foundation, the OAVP and PPO, and Toto Lozano.
You may contact 2212411 local 8273 or 8351 for tickets. (MindaNews)