Christmas is really the time to celebrate children’s rights and to renew our commitment and determination to continue taking a stand for them, protecting, rescuing and saving them from harm and advocating protection for all vulnerable children. That’s the mission of Preda Foundation, and we thank you for the help, support and donations that you have contributed to help many children. From the first days of His birth, Jesus of Nazareth was born a very vulnerable child. He was threatened with death by King Herod and escaped with His life when His parents fled into Egypt.
Happy Days
The last year has been another successful, positive and happy year for 150 children/survivors who were helped in the Preda home for girls and recovered strongly from the trauma of their abuse. The children that flee their abusers find refuge and protection in the Preda homes. Here, they get a new lease on life, thanks to your donations and support and help. They are happy and content but wish for a happy future.
When rescued from their houses or sex bars of their abusers or traffickers, Preda staff and the other children give them a warm welcome, affirmation, encouragement, support, understanding, friendship, and reassurance which is a great start to their recovery. They feel safe and well-protected where their abusers can’t get them. Please continue your support all the more and help us save more because there are many more frightened children in hiding, scared to tell anyone. They need to be rescued from their abusers and human traffickers and supported by the Preda family. There are at present 64 girls from the ages of 6 to 17 in the Preda home at different stages of healing and empowerment and recovery. Their dignity and self-confidence are restored, their lost childhood is recovered and they experience, perhaps for the first time, freedom, happiness and joy.
Rose Anne was 14 when she was first abused by her uncle and a cousin. They threatened to kill her if she told anyone, just like Jesus was threatened by King Herod. She lived in fear every day until she told a classmate of her ordeal who told a teacher. It was then that Rose Anne was rescued by Preda and a government social worker. She recovered at the Preda home for girls with the help of caring staff and freely joined the Emotional Release Therapy where she cried, shouted and released her pain and anger at her abusers. Today, she is recovered and has bravely testified against her abusers and convicted them both to life in prison. Rose Anne is enrolled now in college with the help of Preda supporters and is strongly outspoken and will be a great policewoman one day.
Preda has helped thousands of youth to be released from subhuman detention cells, healed and educated since 1974 when Preda first started 50 years ago.
This year, eighteen child sex abusers were convicted with testimony from Preda children. Victories continue month by month. Since the girls’ home first opened in 1996, as many as 400 plus abusers and traffickers have been convicted and are serving life sentences, thanks to the brave and courageous children who told their story convincingly and truthfully to the court and were believed.
Many more Preda children are on their way to a similar happy future as Rose Anne’s, including the 85 children that were reintegrated this year to safe, supportive families. They will join the 47 other children who were reintegrated in the previous year. They continue their education through the Preda aftercare educational financial support program and are visited and cared for by a Preda outreach social worker.
Boys Deprived of Liberty
Preda continues to campaign for the release of boys deprived of liberty by advocating on social media for the proper implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law. This law, Republic Act No. 9344, which Preda campaigned to be enacted, says youth age 15 years and younger cannot be deprived of liberty and cannot be charged with a crime or held in detention. Yet, the children are still being arrested and locked up in detention centers. Some are street children, seriously at risk of abuse. The boys older than 15 and charged with wrongdoing are treated like criminals and held behind bars in large jail cells, sometimes twenty to a barred cell. They are called children in conflict with the law. They are rescued by Preda and others are referred by local social workers and family court judges to the Preda homes for boys.
Preda has helped thousands of youth to be released from sub-human detention cells, healed and educated since 1974 when Preda first started 50 years ago. Preda celebrated this anniversary on February 22, 2024, at the Preda Octagon building in Subic town. That rescue and release work continues today in the Preda therapeutic homes for boys deprived of freedom.
The work raising awareness of human rights and children’s rights to prevent abuse and exploitation continue to be implemented after the pause during the lock-downs of Covid years.
A total of 38 young boys were rescued this year and lived at an open Preda home in a spacious countryside home in Nagbayan, Castillejos, Zambales. There, they enjoy a life free from abuse and are accepted, encouraged, reaffirmed and given emotional therapy to deal with the pains of childhood suffering, rejection, punishment and abuse. Now, they have a happier life and a better chance in life through Preda which provides education, therapy and values formation, sports, fun and games in an open center where the dignity of every child is respected.
New Dawn Home for Boys in Cebu
There are now 28 boys in conflict with the law in the Preda New Dawn Home in Liloan, Cebu. These youth have pending court cases and have been released from the severe subhuman jail conditions in government youth detention centers. There, they suffered greatly. Preda convinces judges to use the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law to release them and transfer them to the Preda home for boys in Liloan, Cebu. Here, they have a new life, with therapy, education and a great chance to start life anew. The Preda aftercare program looks after them also. The boys are very grateful for their love and concern.
Raising Awareness
The work raising awareness of human rights and children’s rights to prevent abuse and exploitation continues to be implemented after the pause during the lockdowns of Covid years. Now, it is back and a new phase of this important program is focused on teachers, students and their parents to prevent child abuse and encourage children to report victimization.
The seminars teach the correct procedure for parents and teachers to follow when they suspect or know of child abuse anywhere. Preda conducts these seminars and gets the audience actively involved. Some of the Preda scholars who are victim-survivors of abuse are guest speakers. They freely tell their stories and give great advice from their personal experiences of abuse and human trafficking.
Preda Fair Trade
Preda Fair Trade helped 561 indigenous Aeta farmers this year in Zambales. After three years of almost no harvest due to climate change, there was a better organic mango harvest of Pico mango this year. Thirty-five tons of fresh, organic Pico mangoes were gathered in June. The project has achieved the EU standard for an Organic Certificate issued by the Control Union. The farmers were paid high prices and dividends. In addition, Preda Fair Trade implemented six major development projects in the villages, providing water supply with long hoses from the uphill source to stainless tanks in the villages.
The Aeta children also gained increased awareness about their rights, especially the importance of protecting women and children from early and forced marriages that is now prohibited by the new law forbidding “child marriage.” Preda also helped lobby for the anti-child marriage law.
Preda Fair Trade in Mindanao has helped many small farmers in the Preda Farmers Association by paying high prices for their carabao mangoes. These are processed into dried mangos by the Preda Fair Trade project and the Preda Fair Trade distribution of cash bonus (dividend) payments and school supplies are given to many families.
Advocacy Work and Cooperation
Preda advocates children’s rights and the human rights of all through social media—Preda Foundation’s Facebook and website www.preda.org and articles are published in The Manila Times on Sunday (The Sunday Times) and other magazines and newspapers.
This year, Preda maintained its status as a registered, licensed and accredited social welfare and development agency by complying with hundreds of indicators in a tedious evaluation process by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Preda is one of only two non-government organizations in Central Luzon that is currently accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification. This means that Preda has very high standards of NGO operation and management in fulfilling its services for children.
Thank you for reading this and we wish you a blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with positive happy experiences.
Columban Fr. Shay Cullen and the whole Preda team.