PREDA NEWS PAGE
LATEST NEWS/ARTICLE/UPDATE:
Helping
the hungry feed themselves - Fr
Shay Cullen | July 28, 2010
My first encounter with death by starvation was in Olongapo City many years ago when I was called out to bless a dead child. I was led to the hovel made of cartons and plastic sheet where the three year old was about to be buried. Read more...
PHOTO: The Preda staff together with Volunteers from different Countries help feed street children, a new program by the Preda Foundation.
PREDA
Gives Tri-Bikes for Livelihood and Children - July 26, 2010
Preda has launched a new Fair-trade sharing project to help the farm workers of small mango farmers in far-flung villages in Davao, Mindanao and Botolan, Zambales. Read more...
PHOTO: One of 50 Tri-Bikes being distributed to mango farm workers.
Fair-Trade
Antidote to Social Injustice - Fr
Shay Cullen | July 21, 2010
Last June, I traveled widely in Mindanao. I traveled first across parts of Northern Mindanao to Gingoog City in a space of three hours and passed about 20 giant trucks stacked high with logs destined to the plywood mills or to the ships for export. Read more...
PHOTO: Decades of illegal logging, unusually high rainfall and geography have all contributed to the devastation wrought by storms that have lashed the Philippines, the government and environmentalists say.
Revealed:
brutal guide to punishing jailed youths - Mark Townsend,
The Observer | July 18, 2010
Shocking details of techniques used to inflict pain deliberately on children in privately run jails have been revealed for the first time in a government document obtained by the Observer. Read more...
PHOTO: Carol Pounder from Burnley, whose 14-year-old son Adam Rickwood was found dead at Hassockfield secure training centre in County Durham in August 2004. Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Mango,
the king of fruits - Ishi Khosla/Indian Express
Perhaps one of the few things to look forward in hot summers is the mango. This popular fruit has reasons to be the national fruit. It originated in India, thousands of years ago and reached East Asia in 4th-5th century. Read more...
PHOTO: Mango is the King of fruits. India is the largest producer and exporter of Mangoes in the world. India produces some 10 million tonnes of mangoes annually accounting for 52 per cent of the world output.
The
President of Ireland recognizes the valuable work of the Preda
Foundation - July 16, 2010
The work of Preda Foundation protecting children and women's rights was recognized last Saturday, 10 July 2010 by Irish President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin at the presidents residence, Aras an Uachtaráin in The Phoenix Park, Dublin. Read more...
PHOTO: Fr Shay Cullen with the President of Ireland
Vatican
Revises Abuse Process, but Causes Stir - By RACHEL DONADIO
| July 15, 2010
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued revisions to its internal laws on Thursday making it easier to discipline sex-abuser priests, but caused confusion by also stating that ordaining women as priests was as grave an offense as pedophilia. Read more...
PHOTO: Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor, left, and Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi discussed the new set of norms issued on Thursday to respond to the worldwide clerical abuse scandal.
Fair-Trade
Can Change an Unjust Trading System - Fr
Shay Cullen | July 14, 2010
Fair-trade has been an important part of my work in life since I first came to the Philippines 40 years ago and today it is more important than ever. It all began when I started a small handicraft basket and rattan chair making project in Olongapo City to help street youth and drug dependents find a self-reliant livelihood and restore their self-esteem. Read more...
PHOTO: Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards.
PHILIPPINES
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE LAW FINALLY APPROVED - Emmanuel Drewery
After many years of lobbying and campaigning, Republic Act 100681 otherwise known as "Organic Agriculture Act" was finally signed and approved. Preda is one of the lead organizations under the "One Organic Movement" that pushed for the passage of the law and the lead organization in promoting organic farming methods in Zambales. Read more...
PHOTO: The RA 10068, signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo earlier this month, stipulates that it is a state policy to promote, propagate, and further develop the practice of organic farming in the Philippines.
Philippines:
Ending Killings Should Top Aquino’s Agenda - Human Rights Watch
| July 12, 2010
(New York) - The Philippines' new president, Benigno Aquino, should urgently adopt measures to end killings by government security forces and militias, Human Rights Watch said in a letter delivered to Malacañang Palace today. Read more...
PHOTO: President Aquino takes office at a time when the Philippines faces daunting human rights challenges. Now he needs to turn his promises into action by taking immediate steps to end the widespread killings and hold the killers and those who deploy them accountable.
The
Loss of Credibility - Fr
Shay Cullen | July 07, 2010
The Catholic Church Hierarchy in the Philippines is strongly opposing the introduction of sex education in the public schools. They say it will encourage youth to engage in premarital and promiscuous sex, learn about contraception and lead immoral lives. Sex education, they say, is the duty and responsibility of the parents not the governments. Read more...
PHOTO: Philippine elementary and high schools will start teaching basic sex education as a pilot program in the conservative Roman Catholic nation brushing aside concerns by church leaders that it may encourage promiscuity among the youth.
Thai
police question Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev - BBC News |
July 6, 2010
Police in the Thai resort of Pattaya have questioned Russian musician Mikhail Pletnev over allegations of sex with an under-age boy. Read more...
PHOTO: Thai police questioned Mikhail Pletnev in a restaurant
John Paul
II's Theology of the Body - By CHRISTOPHER WEST
What is marital spirituality? How does the family become authentically spiritual? For Pope John Paul II, the answers to these questions "of the spirit" are revealed in the body. Read more...
PHOTO: Theology of the Body is John Paul II's teaching on love, life and human sexuality.
Melbourne
Archbishop's apology for sex abuse - CathNews | July 05, 2010
Melbourne's Archbishop Denis Hart issued a Pastoral Letter at the weekend in response to the recent international focus on the issue of sexual abuse. Read more...
PHOTO: Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart has issued a Pastoral Letter in response to the recent international focus on the issue of sexual abuse.
DECLARE
A MORATORIUM ON ALL LARGE-SCALE MINING OPERATIONS - PHILIPPINE
MISEREOR PARTNERSHIP, INC
We, from the Philippine Misereor Partnership, Inc. (PMPI), composed of about 300 organizations (church-based organizations, NGO and Peoples Organizations (POs) spread all over the country call on our new President Simeon Benigno Aquino III to declare a moratorium on all pending applications for large-scale mining operations. Read more...
PHOTO: The aggressive promotion of large-scale mining in the country espoused by the Arroyo Administration failed to generate the expected revenue given the dismal 1.4% contribution of the mining sector to the GDP in 2007 compared to Agriculture and Fisheries which is much higher at 16.5%.
A
Nation Crying Out for Justice - Fr
Shay Cullen | June 30, 2010
There is a new Philippine president. Noynoy Aquino has stepped into the challenging role as “hope of the nation” and has selected his cabinet that promises a corruption free Philippines. Read more...
PHOTO: Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (born February 8, 1960) also known as Noynoy Aquino is the fifteenth President of the Philippines
Philippines:
Investigate Killing of Massacre Witness - Human Rights
Watch | June 24, 2010
The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation should immediately investigate the latest killing of a witness to the November 2009 massacre of at least 58 people in Maguindanao province, Mindanao, Human Rights Watch said today. Read more...
PHOTO: Local television reporters identify their colleague while police investigators tag victims retrieved from a shallow grave at the site of a massacre of a political clan that included several journalists in the outskirts of Ampatuan, Maguindanao in southern Philippines on November 25, 2009. © 2009 Reuters
Sheila
O'Hara Visits the Sex Bars - Fr
Shay Cullen | June 23, 2010
When Sheila O'Hara, that intrepid social investigator continued her journey in the Philippines, with Melinda her friend and interpreter, she went to the cities and towns well known for their sex tourism business to gather data for her theses. Read more...
PHOTO: Sexual trafficking is an international phenomenon, including sexual slaves from around the globe. Men and boys are sexually trafficked, but 90 percent of this trade in human flesh happens with women and girls.
Bulger
killer Jon Venables faces child porn charges - BBC News | June
21, 2010
One of the two killers of Merseyside toddler James Bulger has been charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. Read more...
PHOTO: Bulger killer Jon Venables faces child porn charges
An
Open Door and Home for Victims - Fr
Shay Cullen | June 16, 2010
Not long ago, I was asked to write an article on a Papal apostolic prayer. I used to think of such prayers as long and windy, padded with unpronounceable words and hardly intelligible. Read more...
PHOTO: War, persecution and torture force many children to flee on their own in many countries
No
Justice for Child Sex Slaves - Fr
Shay Cullen | June 09, 2010
The outright dismissal by Philippine prosecutors in Olongapo city, of criminal charges of child trafficking for sexual exploitation brought by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against a father and his 33 year-old son, Filipinos with US citizenship, has provoked outrage and anger among defenders of children's rights. Read more...
PHOTO: Children, some as young as 5 years old, are being sold as slaves for sex. It's a shameful secret that's now capturing the attention of the world.
Damien
Dempsey to travel to the Philippines to visit PREDA - by
Philipp Cribbin | June 07, 2010
Damien Dempsey, the globally recognised musician, is renowned for his deep sense of social justice and passion for the oppressed. He first became involved in the work of PREDA, co-founded by multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Fr. Shay Cullen Read more...
PHOTO: Damien Dempsey is an Irish singer and songwriter who mixes traditional Irish folk with contemporary lyrics to deliver social comment on the positive and negative aspects arising from Ireland's Celtic Tiger society.
The
Philippines and the International Criminal Court - Fr Shay
Cullen | June 02, 2010
The landslide victory of the new president-elect Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was elected on a wave of hope and nostalgia that began with an emotional tsunami during the long 8-hour funeral procession of his mother, Corazon “Cory” Aquino last August 2009. Read more...
PHOTO: Clarita Alia speaks out against death squad killings at a rally in Davao City. From July 2001 to April 2007, her four sons--Richard, 18, Christopher, 17, Bobby, 14, and Fernando, 15--fell victim to apparent death squad killings. The police have not arrested a single suspect in any of the killings. © Ryan Anson
Compassion
for Children - Fr Shay Cullen | May 26, 2010
It was a dark, overcrowded prison cell packed with the sweating, heaving tattooed bodies of the most wicked-looking criminals you could imagine. I could not see Hakim, the young kid I had come to rescue from this harsh place of human misery and degradation if ever there was one. Read more...
PHOTO: Because of the lack of facilities, children share crowded quarters with adults, such as in this city jail in Metro Manila.
The
Gulf of Mexico Disaster Likely to be Repeated in Alaska - May
22, 2010
While the oil pipe rupture in the Gulf of Mexico is the worst oil spill disaster ever it could be repeated in Alaska as off shore drilling there is to continue. Read more...
PHOTO: U.S. Navy submarines deployed to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast have detected what amounts to a frozen oil blob from the oil geyser at the destroyed Deep Horizon off-shore oil rig south of Louisiana.
Bono
of U2, a Preda supporter recovering from back surgery - BBC
News | May
21, 2010
U2's lead singer Bono has had emergency spinal surgery after suffering an injury while preparing for tour dates. Read more...
PHOTO: U2's manager said the injury could cause further postponements
The
Travels of Sheila O’Hara Part 3 - Fr Shay Cullen | May 19, 2010
Before Sheila left Metro Manila to continue on her travels throughout the Philippines, she crossed the city festooned with election posters, banners and great advertisement boards from which beaming politicians promised justice, equality and prosperity and an end to corruption and many other impossible dreams. Read more...
PHOTO: Squatters often live in areas with no legal electricity service and must use found materials (wood, boxes, corrugated tin) to build housing in areas deemed “uninhabitable.”
The
Challenges Facing a New President - Fr Shay Cullen | May 12, 2010
The expected victory of leading candidate Benigno Simeon Cojuangco “Noynoy” Aquino III has raised the hopes and expectations of the people of the Philippines. Read more...
PHOTO: With victory all but in the bag, the new President of the Philippines, Senator Benigno Aquino, is now turning his attention to an even bigger challenge .. delivering on his campaign promises.
Rugby
Legend Jerry Flannery joins forces with PREDA Galway, The Western
Hotel & Galway Community College for unique PREDA rugby jersey
raffle - May 07, 2010
The Western Hotel Galway is co-ordinating a unique rugby jersey raffle which was the brain child of Ireland and Munster legend Jerry Flannery. Read more...
PHOTO: Rugby Legend Jerry Flannery joins forces with PREDA Galway, The Western Hotel & Galway Community College for unique PREDA rugby jersey raffle
The
President That Can Bring Change - Fr Shay Cullen | May 05, 2010
The hope and dream of every Filipino is to see a transformation in the land and its people. They never cease to hope for the Filipino Messiah, a true, honest, charismatic President that will have nation-wide support of the indigenous people, the small farmers and the millions of marginalized Filipinos. Read more...
PHOTO: Bolivian President Evo Morales
The
Power that Rules the Nation - Fr Shay Cullen | April
28, 2010
One of the biggest challenges facing any new president and administration will be how to deal with the political culture of crime where guns and goons and oodles of ill-gotten money buys or buries opponents and bedazzles the electorate with false claims, promises and empty meaningless rhetoric. Read more...
PHOTO: Supporters light candles in front of a portrait of the late former Philippine President Corazon Aquino in Manila, whose "People Power" revolution toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy to the nation.
Is
ocean acidification worse than global warming? - By Fr Shay Cullen April 16, 2010
EVIDENCE gathered by scientists around the world over the past few years is beginning to suggest ocean acidification, the evil twin of global warming, could represent an equal or perhaps even greater threat to the biology of our planet than global warming. Read more...
PHOTO: The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world's oceans, international marine scientists have warned.
Gawad
Kalinga, Hope for the Philippines - Fr Shay Cullen | April
21, 2010
Last week I had a meeting with a remarkable man, Tony Meloto, the founder of the catholic social action movement Gawad Kalinga (Caring for Others) that is utilizing all of its resources to mobilize the church, politicians, community leaders and every willing Filipino to do good to help their neighbor and bring an end to the crippling and disastrous poverty in the Philippines. His goal is to achieve this by 2024. Read more...
PHOTO: Gawad Kalinga is building a nation empowered by people with faith and patriotism; a nation made up of caring and sharing communities, dedicated to eradicate poverty and restore human dignity.
Yemen
child bride 'bleeds to death' - BBC News, April
8, 2010
A 13-year-old Yemeni girl has died of internal bleeding three days after being married, rights groups say. The report comes amid ongoing debate on setting a minimum age for brides in Yemen, where more than a quarter of girls are married before the age of 15. Read more...
PHOTO: Many Yemeni children live in poverty and are malnourished. Money tempt fathers to marry off their children.
Message
for World Fair Trade Day - By Fr Shay Cullen April 16, 2010
There is nothing more important than a life well lived and for us to live justly and honestly as people of integrity we must be involved in fair trade. This means that we will strive to do good, be just and honorable respecting the rights of all to a life of dignity and prosperity. Read more...
PHOTO: Fr. Shay Cullen, holding a Fair Trade Dried mango pack, supports the World Fair Trade Day 2010 by promoting fair trade products.
Pope
Benedict says Catholic Church must 'do penance' - BBC News |
April 15, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI has called on Roman Catholics to "do penance" for their sins, an apparent reference to the recent child sexual abuse scandal. Read more...
PHOTO: Pope Benedict said on Thursday the sexual abuse scandal shaking Roman Catholicism showed the Church needed to do penance for its sins, in a rare public reference by the pope to pedophilia in the priesthood.
The
Earth, Where the Brave Are Buried - Fr Shay Cullen | April
14, 2010
It was his idealism, his commitment to saving the earth and his love of nature that brought Gensun Agustin, 30, of Buguey, Cagayan, Northern Luzon, the Philippines, to an early and unnatural death at 4 PM last 1 March 2010. Read more...
PHOTO: A LEADER of an antimining group in Cagayan, he was gunned down on his way home by two men in Buguey town.
Helping
a Victim of Child Abuse - Fr Shay Cullen | April 07, 2010
Last week, a mother came to the Preda shelter asking help and protection for her two little girls, one 8 and the other 4, both sexually-abused by their own father. Read more...
PHOTO: A number of treatments are available to victims of child abuse. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, first developed to treat sexually abused children, is now used for victims of any kind of trauma.
MONTH OF MARCH NEWS/ARTICLES/UPDATES:
The Resurrection of Oscar Romero - Fr Shay Cullen | March 31, 2010
Archbishops Speak Against Clerical Child Abuse and Defend the Pope - March 28, 2010
Keeping the record straight on Benedict and the crisis - By John L Allen Jr | March 26, 2010
The Pope's Pastoral letter on child sexual abuse by priests - Fr Shay Cullen | March 24, 2010
Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys - By LAURIE GOODSTEIN | March 24, 2010
Pope apologizes for priests' child sex abuse - Agence France-Presse, March 21, 2010
Pastoral letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland - March 21, 2010
Change the System, Free the Children - Fr Shay Cullen | March 17, 2010
Cardinal says he will not resign over Smyth abuse case - DAN KEENAN and PATSY McGARRY | March 15, 2010
Philippine prisons in terrible state–US report - by Irwin Loy | March 15, 2010
Brady at secret meetings on Smyth abuse allegations - The Irish Times, March 14, 2010
Clerical Abuse of Children must be Stopped - Fr Shay Cullen | March 10, 2010
Dried Mangoes Could Prevent Cancer - New Medical Discoveries - Fr Shay Cullen | March 03, 2010
US to help fight child sex trafficking - by Irwin Loy | March 02, 2010
Dried Mangoes Could Prevent Cancer - New Medical Discoveries - Fr Shay Cullen | March 03, 2010
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