Fight for the Rights
Dear friends,
Today I
don’t want to speak about the hard work we are doing daily in the logistic
sector, though about a group of persons, working very hard, putting their
lives in danger by fighting against the sex tourism and the abuse of minors.
Besides other organizations, I
want to speak about the NGO, PREDA, founded in 1973 by the Irish father Shay
Cullen, together with his friend Alex Corpus Hermoso and his wife Merle
Ramirez Hermoso in Olongapo City Filippines.
Father shay, who already received various prizes from different
governments, continues to rescue the poorest children of the world from the
organized child prostitution rings. This is his history:
Since 1969 he worked as a
priest in Olongapo City. In 1971 he goes back to Ireland to inform his
religious order about the disastrous situation in the Filippines. Before
going back to the Filippines, he stopped in Calcutta for a time working
together with mother Teresa , to learn about her work.
Returning to the Filippines,
he starts his work fighting against the American Navy base in Subic Bay,
Olongapo, where the principal clients of the sexual tourism in Olongapo City
had been situated in those days.
With his team he brought
about the result that the Navy base would finally be closed, but a result of
this has been that a lot of Filipino / American families, left by their
American fathers and " husbands " were abandoned without resources.
I already mentioned Alex
Hermoso, who traveled to the United States in order to explain this problem
in the American Congress , which finally decided to give a financial help.
Here we are not only speaking about financial help, but also about a
recognition of an additional problem caused by them.
I don’t want to point my
finger at one nation, as the problem of the abuse of minors continues it is
giving a lot of profit to mafias all over the world.
As a commentator, writer,
photographer and reporter, Fr. Shay Cullen informed the world about the
situation of the children, who are forced to prostitution.
A result of his work, next to
others, are new laws enacted by governments of countries like Germany, Great
Britain, Scandinavian countries, Japan and Canada to pursue their citizens
for these crimes, committed abroad.
In the orphanage of the NGO
PREDA, we can find a lot of children rescued by the team of PREDA from bars.
They receive psychological treatment and formation, that gives them the best
start for their new life of dignity.
The fight against poverty and
ending the sale of the human beings, the principal goal is to provide work
for everyone in conditions of dignity - another aim for PREDA.
Unifying their operations,
giving formation in design and quality of manufacturing and marketing the
products in the first world, the PREDA FAIR TRADE has been founded. (www.
Preda.org/fairtrading/index.htm)
In the leadership we can find
Alex Corpus Hermoso with his team.
The commerce of dried mango
suffered for many years, as ¨companies had for many years a monopoly on
buying of mangos and therefore dictated the buying prices. PREDA started
paying higher prices for this product and achieved an important change in
the mango industry. Drying the mango by a 100 % natural method, the
organization obtained a very good reputation for quality-dried mango in
foreign countries.
I don’t want to mention only
the mango industry, as the artisan articles also surprised me because of
their beauty.
I think PREDA is an
organization hard-working, complete and marvelous, because of this success
they have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2003.
I want to thank Hamann
International for giving a donation to PREDA showing their support and
solidarity.
Not everyone of us can make a
donation and we don’t have time to act as guardian angels rescuing children
out of jail. But yes we can start to be more sensible in regard to this
subject, informing ourselves through the Internet, supporting the campaign
with a letter or a signature. We are growing, more persons are joining in
support of our actions in order to obtain step by step a world of greater
justice.
I hope that this small article
helped to wake up and t interest some of you - this will be my wish for
Christmas, because we never should forget " THIS WORLD IS NOT OURS, THOUGH
IT HAS BEEN LOANED TO US BY THE CHILDREN"
Happy Christmas to all of you!
Christina Roesl
