PREDA NEWSLETTER June 1997 
Dear Friends,
How time flies - I can hardly believe it is over two months since I last
wrote to you in the last newsletter.
There has been a lot happening here at PREDA. There are now twenty children
in the recovery program for neglected and abused children. Ten of them were
able to join Summer Camps where they participated in games swimming, sports
and adventure hikes and outdoor training.
For children who were badly abused it is terrific to see them doing so well
and enjoying life.
Three of our young boys transferred to Bethany House, an orphanage run by
the Carmelite Sisters about fifty kilometers from here. They came yesterday
with one of the sisters for a visit. They are settled in and happy.
A group of kind hearted women from Stord in Norway has volunteered to help
the boys.
Summer Activities
This summer there were many activities for the children at PREDA.
We brought in a music teacher and the house was filled with the squawks and
howls of a very untrained choir. But after two weeks, the harmony grew
sweet. We also got a dance teacher and the main hall was the scene of dance
and laughter.
There was jar painting. PREDA help find buyers for a community of painters
who hand paint beautiful jars with ethnic and other designs. They came to
teach the children and there was a lot of excitement and fun.
Filipino-American Youth Training
There were also youth training seminars for the group of 15 teenage
Filipino-American children who PREDA is helping overcome their poverty,
low-self esteem and are sending to school.
The human development training is the most important. These young teenagers,
boys and girls 12 to 17 years old, have to overcome the effects of years of
discrimination because of their background.
We can see a new sense of pride and dignity emerging.
Scholarships
Ten high school graduates were admitted to the PREDA Scholarship college
program this month.
These are intelligent young people who graduated near the top of their class
and who will become future Christian leaders of the youth and join the
battle against sex tourism and child abuse both while in college and
afterwards.
This commitment while students will shape their outlook and strengthen their
character.
Speakers Bureau Graduation
For the past year the PREDA public education program has been training young
people in several towns in the province to be volunteer public speakers and
organizers of public education seminars on children's rights, drug abuse and
HIV/Aids prevention.
They will become Community Organizing Volunteers.
This week they will graduate after the final three day seminar and will soon
be organizing and conducting seminars in their own towns.
School Enrollment
This week also we are busy organizing all the children to enroll in school.
Three of them cannot enroll outside because they are threatened and in
danger from their abusers. So we have arranged for tutors to come into the
centre and teach them here and they will be tested by their school and will
be able to take their exams.
Abuser Lured To His Arrest
Three weeks ago we were able to bring about the arrest of a child abuser,
James Kuns who sexually abused a 2 1/2 year old child.
He went into hiding so PREDA we devised a plan to lure him out.
We sent him a letter and a magazine as if coming from a friend in the United
States who would soon arrive and bring him money from his relatives. The
magazine, a National Geographic, was to be carried by Kuns so this "friend'
from America could recognize him.
It worked!!
Kuns arrived at the meeting place holding the magazine. We drove over and
the two National Police agents we brought with us grabbed him.
After reading him his rights and showing him the arrest warrant we brought
him to jail and now he is back on trial.
Fair Trade and Trade Fairs
PREDA is very active in helping small producers of handicraft and
cooperatives producing mangoes and other fruits and providing them with a
direct link to the international market.
Hundreds are employed as a result. Mrs. Merly Hermoso co-founder of PREDA in
1974 is the general manger of this department.
Many children are lured into prostitution when their families are forced by
poverty to leave their villages and migrate to the city slums where life is
even harder. To stem the flow of migration rural poverty alleviation
projects is very important and an effective prevention of child
prostitution.
As part of our assistance to these producers and to increase markets for
their products we have been working with the Canada Assisted Community
Enterprise Development project.
Mr. Alex Hermoso, Program Director at PREDA, was elected President of this
national association of Fair Traders. With funds from CIDA the association
is organizing a Trade Fair this year in Manila.
Next year selected producers and their products will attend three trade
fairs in Canada.
Where The Money Comes From
The mangoes growers cooperatives were greatly assisted by a fund procured by
the incredible efforts of Hank and Tillie Zyp of the St. Joseph's Save the
Children's Fund in Edmonton, Canada.
Jubilee Campaign in England headed by Danny Smith, is a big supporter in our
child rescue and investigation work. Caritas Netherlands and Caritas and
Heks Switzerland have contributed annually to the operation of the Childhood
for Children project that cares for the victims of child abuse.
PREDA of course must provide its share of counterpart funds for all these
projects and provide the administration costs.
We rely on donations from friends and supporters.
ADB Meeting in Japan
Last 8 to 13 of May I attended the Non Government Organizations (NGO) group
at the meeting of the Asian Development Bank held in Fukuoka City, Japan.
The bank is the biggest lender of money to the Philippine Government for
many projects frequently shunted aside so the poor make way for the
infrastructure funded by the bank.
Helping the poor and monitoring the environmental impact of the projects is
the role of the NGOs.
Our group had private meetings with the bank president and vice president
and senior bank officials to discuss various problems.
I was able to get a hearing for the problem of huge electric cables erected
near the PREDA Children's home and it's now possible that we might be able
to find a remedy for these dangerous cables.
I'm Sued For $150,000
Fr Shay's column in the Issue, a national daily newspaper, last March
exposed a big hotel making moves to demolish a Muslim village to expand the
hotel. The owners sued myself, and the paper for almost PhP3,100,000
(US$153,000).
The story is well documented and we expect that it will be dismissed.
Regrettably a wing of the hotel burnt down two weeks after we were sued. No
connection of course.
Human Rights Award
The Senior PREDA Investigator on child abuse cases Rolly Besarra has been
nominated for a Human Rights Award by the American shoe giant Reebok. It is
worth US$25,000 to the winner.
Rolly says that if he wins he will donate part of the prize money to the
investigation department and to the child victims, the rest will be for a
educational investment fund for his first child due in August.
Fr. Shay Cullen and the PREDA Children and Staff
