Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 111 (Suppl.), December 2009

A pastoral care of welcome

in favour of street children

Rev. Fr. Shay Cullen, sscme

President of the "Preda Foundation Inc."

Philippines

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

There are over one million street children worldwide that see the inside of a prison, frequently sexually abused, tortured, deprived of all their human rights and damaged for life. many children, victims of homelessness, poverty or sexual abuse in the home or neighbourhood  feel to the streets and are picked up by pimps and trafficked into the sex brothels and bars. In the Philippines the Preda apostolate has established programs to address; the  root causes of these problems  economic and spiritual poverty, moral corruption and ignorance, we act by creating employment with dignity through fair trade, and by taking a prophetic outspoken stand against, child abuse and exploitation of children and youth.  We campaign for the recognition of the inalienable rights of the child and lobby government and national and international agencies to enact and implement laws to protect children. Preda jail and brothel rescue services saves children and provides safe protected homes with  psychological, therapeutic, spiritual and educational experiences to survivors of jail, sexual abuse and those trafficked and abused in the sex industry and children  raped in their own home or community.

The work that I am doing for the past 39 years is to develop a global awareness and help focus world attention on the suffering and sexual abuse and exploitation of children. I believe that when enough people know the truth about the extent and causes of sexual abuse and commercial exploitation of children they will respond to do more to help end these hideous crimes. 

My work began when I first went to the Philippines I was assigned to a parish in Olongapo City which is situated on Subic Bay in 1969. This town was the home of the US Navy 7^th fleet and thousands of navy men lived on this huge base and many more would visit Olongapo City when the aircraft carriers and warships arrived.

The city was one big brothel, thousands of women and children were systematically sexually exploited, exposed to HIV-Aids and were victims of violence. Many more young children were sold to paedophiles and many were victims of drug abuse. An estimated 16,000 women and children were trafficked and prostituted in the sex bars.

Young boys some as young as 10 and 12 years old were jailed in subhuman conditions and sexually abused by older prisoners. We have made much progress but the jailing of children is still going on today despite the new law forbidding it. It is estimated  that as many as  12,000 children see the inside of a detention holding cell in a 12 month period in the Philippines. They can be imprisoned form one week to five months most are awaiting trial for some small offence, many are innocent and almost  none are criminals. In some police stations minors are held in cells with adult prisoners. There they can be raped and abused.

The children imprisoned are damaged for life, they lose their self-esteem, dignity and even their hope to survive, they are destroyed as human persons. Until very recently the age of criminal liability in the Philippines was 9 years old and thousands were jailed every year. It is a global problem especially in developing countries.

The child prisons in the Philippines are closed to the public and even professionals and social workers and church people are barred, so we can hardly know about the torture, brutality and sexual assault endured by children behind bars. These we learn when we succeed in getting the children freed and brought to the protection of the Preda Children’s home. Then they tell their stories and draw pictures of  the abuse there received in jail (see pictures drawn by survivors  www.preda.org).
The Preda project, an alternative home to prison  is without guards, gates, walls or punishment, threats but provides acceptance, understanding, affirmation, education, spiritual values, trust and skilled training. They experience  a rebirth of self esteem and dignity and receive training in responsible free choice in the children and youth home. The home although open it has a 90% free choice retention rate. This is the truly Christian approach that works for hundreds of children committed. Jail is no place for children and youth.

In 1974 With Filipino helpers I established the Preda organization (Peoples Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Inc.) to give shelter and protection and recovery to victims of abuse and more importantly to change this unjust situation in society that abandons children and criminalizes them and prostitutes them or allows them to be abused without getting help and justice.

Preda has a legal office  that with social workers and legal action have persuaded judges to release these imprisoned children to the care of Preda homes. Other children are released form police custody before they are charged of a crime in court. With the passing of the 2006 Juvenile Justice bill it is now forbidden to jail or charge children 15 and below. They are in need of psychological help, counselling, spiritual formation and education. However the law is not implemented by police and kids 15 and below are still jailed.   

No person especially an impressionable youth or child can be normal after experiencing jail, especially with adult criminals, murderers and rapists. They are psychologically and emotionally damaged. They are filled with buried anger at abusive adults and some become either abnormally fearful or dangerous and hostile to society. Many will grow up to join violent criminal gangs if not saved and helped. Those youth where are rejected and unwanted by their families have no love, acceptance or support in life and turn to drugs, chemical glues to ease pain and hunger. 

The  effects of sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect caused children to bury there pain and anger within themselves, in  the world or family anger is forbidden no matter the hardship ,abuse or  injustice suffered. The  emotional expressional therapy is to release this bottled up feelings of frustration and hurt and anger. 

In the padded therapy room they can shout and cry, scream and release all the pain and anger and cry out against their abusers and even their parents who abandoned them to the streets and allowed hem to stay  in  jail. This release of the pain allows them to be healed and live without pain killing drugs.

 In the Preda homes there is freedom, respect, friendship affirmation, education, family reconciliation and reintegration. The children and youth do not run away they are treated with understanding, trust, dignity and respect. We have discovered and proven there is NO need for jails and punishment for most children and youth in conflict with the law and even those who commit serious offences will stay of their own free will and change their lives.

Hundreds of the young minors have recovered at the Preda homes. They were given education and many found  jobs and made a successful new life. Andre was 12 years old he pushed a small bicycle on the streets collecting discarded bottles and scrap metal for recycling. He was out of school and earning money to feed his 6 siblings. A police officer who wanted to meet his quota of arrests to get a promotion arrested Andre although he  had committed no crime he was arrested and put in the  cells of the police station mixed with adult criminals, rapists and murderers.

He was made the working slave of the prisoners and at night was sexually assaulted. He was almost four months in that police cell even though it was illegal to hold him there. He was charged with ‘stealing’ scrap metal that was worth five euro. Preda social workers found him and immediately petitioned the judge to release him to the custody and care of Preda until his case was presented to the court.  

 He was traumatized and his family suffered greater hunger without his earnings. Poverty knows no justice, no compensation, no end.  He took months to recover at the Preda children's home where he received all his human and spiritual needs, he received affirmation, respect, understanding, dignity and a new sense of his self-value. He  became a good student with self-discipline and self-respect, and made friends. The false charges were dismissed by the action of the Preda legal team working with the court.

Preda also worked successfully to help change the Philippine law for children accused of wrong doing. This new law waited 9 years with no hope of becoming law. It was passed only after a Preda campaign with Jubilee Campaign in the UK assisting and  they helped realize media exposure on world television  through ITV of the UK and CNN  that shows the conditions of children jailed in Philippine prisons. Preda helped make that exposé.

The new law establishes a progressive form of restorative justice and today the age of criminal liability is set at a high 15 years of age.  Some politicians and police want to repeal that law. However we have to work to have this law in the Philippines implemented and applied and work to have similar good laws that respect the rights of children enacted in other countries.

Children who suffer rejection in the home are beaten, cursed, endure domestic violence, or are sexually abused will run to the streets, and join a gang and most likely to grow up to be violent and rebel against society. Some extreme become child abusers, murderers torturers and tyrants. However children who grow up in a family where there is love, affirmation, good parenting, peace and respect for all will be responsible, caring and  are hard working young people of idealism. This what the Preda homes gives and almost the youth make a successful recovery and a good life. 

Combatting child prostitution and domestic sexual abuse.

In 1983  with Preda social workers I  uncovered a organized child prostitution ring that was trafficking women and children and supplying them for sexual exploitation by US sailors. The town mayors gave operating permits and licenses to the sex clubs and bars.  One day I was called to the church run clinic and learned that 18 children had been found and treated for serious venereal diseases, the youngest child was named Jennifer and was only 9 years old.

We investigated and discovered that the children had been prostituted and sold to sailors and local sex offenders  and the children were infected. Despite efforts by the authorities to hide the child victims and pressure me to cover up the reality, I went public and reported this heinous crimes in the press. There was great anger from the politicians of Olongapo City and they brought charges against me to have me deported from the Philippines.  But the sex traffickers were  not investigated and charged. They failed to deport me.  While rescuing children from this sex slavery and treating them we had to look for the root causes and deal with these causes. The world of depravity, uncontrolled sexual desires, the promotion of sexual gratification as a commodity,  promotes promiscuous, unfaithfulness broken marriages and dysfunctional homes. 

US military bases were the prime cause of these huge social and family problems. 

It took many years of campaigning by Preda Foundation to help organize opposition and we at Preda proposed and campaigned to change the Subic Bay military facilities into economic export zones with a low tax base and it worked.  The bases were closed down in 1992.  The sex industry also closed down. It was a big victory for justice and decency.  Today hundreds of manufacturing companies have invested and 80,000 Filipinos have dignified jobs in Subic bay economic zone although they are low paid.

But great damage had been done to the moral fibre and family values of the surrounding communities. Child abuse was growing in families and the villages and towns.

After 3 years of the removal of the bases the Filipino authorities allowed the reopening of the sex bars and clubs by international mafia, gambling syndicates and most customers today are overseas sex tourists and travelling sex offenders coming into the Philippines from many countries.  That is the present problem now. We at Preda are expanding our services and opposing this great evil of sex tourism that is again sexually exploiting Filipino children and young women.
We need international pressure on eh Philippine authorities to implement the law and  close  the sex industry down.   Sex tourists going to South East Asia  and other places develop a depraved appetite for child sex and then return to their own countries and become abusers of their  children in their own country.  Some  even abuse their own children.  

Today as a direct result of the sex industry clubs and bars are spreading with impunity in the towns and villages of the Philippines. Officials are ignoring the problem . Sexual exploitation is  spreading among the Filipino communities and the legal and moral prohibitions  have  broken down. Even local officials today act as negotiators between child abusers and parents to arrange a financial settlement when the child has been raped or abused. The official earns a percentage of the payment. The child is left without help and the paedophile goes free to abuse other children.

Preda educators and social workers are daily in these villages to provide seminars for the people that this is illegal and the child must be helped and brought to a safe home for victims of abuse.  Our Preda home for girls has 49 children in care and recovery we help them recover by providing a caring supportive environment with protection. We also help them heal by encouraging them to cry out through emotional expression therapy. The deeply buried emotional pain and suffering they hide inside is opened and brought out. The emotional pain is eased and the anger is removed  and psychological healing can begin.

Many children have recovered and are reintegrated to their families when it is safe for them.  Some have succeed in past years and finished college and today are Preda social workers and psychologists helping the new child victims  at  Preda children's home.

The Preda legal officers are filing criminal charges against the abusers but due to weak prosecution few cases prosper and succeed. There are few convictions and abusers are still at large and a danger to the children.

Maryann was abandoned to the streets by her family and trafficked into sex club at the age of 15 she was exploited and sold to foreigners who sexually abused her.  But she was rescued and recovered ay the Preda home became a high honours student and I am happy to tell you that she is in college and is, a children's rights advocate and has just  returned from speaking at an international conference  in Canada on child rights sponsored by UNICEF. 

Evelyn was abused as a child before a runaway from home  to escape the abuse and was trafficked abroad into prostitution in Hong Kong. She was used in making pornography and suffered violence and sexual abuse. This month she was rescued by a colleague of Preda and was flown back to the Philippines and is slowly recovering in Preda. Thousands of young girls are trafficked like this every day.  We can all do much to change this  situation.

May all people of good will, defenders of children, protectors of human rights, all of us, never turn a blind eye to the suffering and exploitation and injustice done to children, may we always have the courage to take a stand and speak out and defend the helpless and most vulnerable.

May we all work for justice and make this a better world for all and especially for children, that hey be recognized as God’s children worthy of love and care. Let us end the and abuse  and  jailing of children and the trafficking of children into the  sex industry.  Help is needed for those of today and those waiting to be born, may we give them a better and more just caring, affirming and loving world.