Fairy Tales from the Philippines

ProMosaik Children was founded by Milena Rampoldi in Istanbul in 2020. Its editor-in-chief, Maria Traoré, publishes children’s books to promote intercultural dialogue. Fairy tales from the Philippines are a rich oral tradition, full of natural elements, spirits, and talking animals resulting in important moral teachings. And then there is the famous story of a lazy girl, the Legend of Piña. The story of Piña (Alamat ng Pinya) is a famous Filipino folktale about a lazy and spoiled girl named Piña, opposed to her hardworking mother. One day, a curse turns her into a pineapple with a thousand eyes. The tale teaches children to respect, listen to, and help their parents, because showing constant idleness and disobedience may result in unexpected outcomes.ProMosaik is convinced that through fairy tales like the ones included in this book children can learn intercultural competence and communication by looking at different communities and their tales.Fairy tales from all over the world are very important to affirm cultural pluralism and to learn cultural geography and moral lessons from other communities around the globe. This permits the creation of a society where racism and discrimination are completely overcome by intercultural competence developed from childhood in multicultural environments. Mariya Traore in her interview with Pressenza: "I believe that ethnic and cultural differences are not an obstacle to peace. For the similarities are more than the differences. The differences can be highlighted constructively. But at the same time, they are positively overshadowed by the similarities due to the fact that we are all humans. If we look at the fairy tales that are told worldwide in all cultural traditions, in addition to the culture-specific differences, we notice huge intersections that help us find our way to a constructive and culturally diverse peace pedagogy. Topics related to interreligious dialogue can also be incorporated into peace education."