Ateneo Human Rights Center Internship Program goes to Occidental Mindoro to immerse with a Mangyan Community

The Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) Internship Program held its Summer Internship Program (SIP) last June 24-30,2023 in a Mangyan community in Occidental Mindoro.

A total of 10 law students from the Ateneo Law School and 1 AHRC staff experienced the day-to-day lives of Mangyans as they immersed themselves in the community for a week.

The immersion is part of AHRC’s Internship Program initiative to allow its interns, future legal practitioners, take on immersive opportunities with the marginalized sector to fully understand their struggles and realize how legal practice can provide remedies to these problems.

“In the past 36 years, the Ateneo Human Rights Center has been continuously inspiring law students to develop interest in alternative lawyering. We want to instill to our interns that we are supposed to learn the law for one greater purpose and that is to serve the people especially the marginalized,” Atty. Marianne Agunoy, AHRC Internship Director shared.

To equip the interns with basic legal knowledge which they may use in conducting paralegal training in their assigned community, they underwent a 4-day basic orientation training (BOS) in Manresa Retreat House in Quezon City. The BOS offered learning sessions on topics such as basic human rights, Indigenous Peoples rights and, business and human rights, among others.

The AHRC internship delegation were welcomed in Occidental Mindoro by Msgr. Carlito Dimaano, Parish Priest of Nuestra Señora Del Pilar Parish in Mamburao and Fr. Ronald Panganiban, Parish Priest of San Sebastian Parish in Sablayan.

The highlights of the internship program and immersion can be watched on AHRC's official Facebook Page. Click on this link: https://fb.watch/lR-KxOLcbS/