Some human rights highlights from Preda in 2020

Happy faces at the Preda Home for Girls. Photo: Preda

We are sharing with you some of the highlights of the work of the Preda Foundation in 2020. We at Preda wish you all a blessed Christmas.

Many children saved
As many as a hundred children have been saved and recovered at the five Preda homes for abused children in 2020, a happy record of healing and empowerment. One of the important highlights of the year is that all the children and the staff have thankfully remained free of the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The protective measures implemented and strictly maintained has made this possible. 

During the last year, we were able to receive in our homes 41 girls who were rescued and saved from sex abusers, human traffickers and from sex slavery. At present, there are 43 children in the homes for girls. The youngest is three-years-old. They were welcomed, given affirmation, support and all their personal needs as soon as they arrived. This year, several were reintegrated into society.

Healing and empowerment
Grace, who is 13-years old, was raped by her biological father while her mother held her down. A horrific, heinous crime. She was threatened and told not to tell. But she bravely told her sister who told a neighbour. It got to the police and she was rescued and referred to the Preda home. She is now safe and has begun to heal and recover from the trauma she experienced.

 With the other children, Grace joined many activities and volunteered to take Emotional Release Therapy. In the padded therapy room, she cried and shouted out her pain and anger at her abusive parents. The children slowly emerge from their fear and trauma, feeling free and begin to smile for the first time in years.

Many abusers convicted in 2020
Legal action by the healing and empowered children in Preda homes has been very successful in 2020 despite the lockdown and closure of the courts for several months. The children, assisted by Preda, succeeded in winning 16 convictions against their rapists and traffickers. 

In one major case, a young trafficker and pimp who sold two young girls to a foreign paedophile many times to be abused received two life sentences in Angeles City. 

The United States national was able to escape. The family tried to abduct the child witness from Preda to stop the case but failed. 

In 2019, the children won 20 convictions and most of the convicted received life sentences so they will not be able to rape any more children. 

There are many more cases filed by Preda children pending to be resolved by the prosecutors while others are stuck in the judicial system waiting for a court hearing, some since 2014. 

For the first time in our history, the children participated in court hearings online, a more child-friendly way than appearing in the courtroom with the abuser present.

Saving boys from sub-human jails
The Preda Foundation has two homes for male children in conflict with the law (CICL), one in Zambales and one in Cebu. We rescue the boys from filthy, abusive and sub-human government detention centres and jails where are frequently subjected to abuse and even torture by older inmates and abusive guards. 

In 2020, Preda rescued more than 30 boys and brought them to start a new life in the Preda home for boys in conflict with the law in Zambales. In Cebu, we rescued 15 boys and they are recovering in the Preda New Dawn Home in Liloan.

Commission on Human Rights investigates
In Preda, the children, some as young as 10-years old, told their stories of torture and abuse in government detention centres. Preda reported this to the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) and, with help from international supporters, the PCHR was encouraged to open an investigation which confirmed and verified the torture, and measures are being taken to monitor and prevent more such torture. 

Preda contributed to the drafting of a new anti-trafficking ordinance in Olongapo City and conducted the first rescue of 18 trafficked women, among them four minors, at a beach resort in Barangay Barretto. The minors were referred to Preda home for healing.

Preventing changes in law, releasing children
In 2020, Preda Foundation continued and increased its lobbying with other non-government organisations to stop the changing of the child protection law to lower the age of criminal liability to 12-years-old and succeeded in keeping it at 15 years of age. 

Then, we campaigned during the pandemic for the release of children from detention centers and as many as 350 were released by the authorities to their parents. Some children were rescued by Preda social workers. However, many more minors with pending cases remain in jails.

Helping indigenous children and families
On  December 4, the Preda Foundation turned over six laptops and installed a full CCTV system in the St. Francis Learning Centre in Subic town for the use of the children of the indigenous Aeta of Zambales.

 The learning centre is an excellent boarding and day school exclusively for indigenous children run by the Franciscan Sisters procide a peaceful environment to learn together without the discrimination, bullying, racist remarks, teasing and exclusion that some lowland children inflict on the indigenous children which drives them to drop out of other schools. The laptops were donated by Paul Gorrie of the The Navigator Network.

Buying Mangos and sharing relief food

Preda worked with 361 Aeta subsistence farmers in Zambales and provided them with relief food packages consisting of 10 kilos of rice and mixed groceries four times in 2020. Also, similar food relief packages were distributed to 320 poor families and snacks, candies and toys for their children in Olongapo City area three times this year.

Preda bought 35.50 tonnes of internationally organic-certified Indian mangos at higher fair trade prices from the 77 Aeta families out of 10 communities that have mango crops this year. Preda Fairtrade shared out bonus payments of Php140,000 to the Aeta families. The mangos are made into organically-certified mango puree.

Mango sapling distribution
Also, with the help of the Columban Fathers and the Merry Year Foundation in South Korea,  we provided the Aeta with 2,000 mango saplings. The Aeta families planted them over the mountains of Zambales to help them reforest and strengthen their claim to their ancestral lands and preventing mining companies and grabbers stealing their lands. 

In Mindanao, the Preda bought 659 tonnes of Fair Trade mangos from the members of our small farmers Fair Trade association. The mangos are all for export as dried mangos and conventional purees to World Shops in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Preda accreditation and higher standards
The Preda Foundation is a Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-licensed and accredited social welfare and development agency, founded in 1974. It is accredited by local government and it has now reached the highest status and standard of excellence. 

It was accredited in 2020 by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) and, as a result, has been certified by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as a Donee Institution since 9 November 2020. Philippine donors are exempted from paying the 30 per cent donor’s tax. All donations will go to the children, none to administration.

New partnership with UN agencies
The United Nations Anti-trafficking and Anti-slavery agencies have recognised Preda as a high standard organisation for helping trafficked, enslaved and abused children and has granted partial funding for 2020 and 2021.

Awards marked
In November, Preda marked the anniversary of the awarding of the prestigious International Martin Buber Plaque Prize for defending children’s rights. 

In January 2021 Preda will mark its fourth nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Preda was nominated by the German Human Rights commissioner, Dr. Barbel Koefler, and was endorsed by several members of the German Parliament. 

That makes the total number of international awards for defending human rights 17. 

Despite the spread of the Covid-19, lockdowns and economic downturn, the work of the foundation has succeeded and will continue in the years ahead with your support and help.

Father Shay Cullen
www.preda.org