Greystones Justice Parish
What happened after the stones were broken
As a parish we broke stones in
May and in the process we raised an amazing €158,000. This money is going
towards building a new centre that will provide accommodation as well as
education for young boys who have been released from prison. Already phase one
of the building is almost complete. In August16 people from the parish visited
Philippines to see at first hand the tremendous work PREDA does in working for
justice. This booklet is intended to give you a flavour of what they
experienced.
My abiding memory was the smell.
It was pungent. The smell of filth and sweat and body odour. A few moments
earlier in a clean and tidy reception room, decorated with photos of the current
director and former directors of the Youth Correctional Centre, we were
subjected to a diatribe. According to this propaganda the children held in this
facility were treated like residents in a first class hotel. We were led to
believe that they received regular exercise, went to classes, and were treated
to food that was checked by a dietician. The reality couldn’t have been more
different. When we saw the actual conditions the speech that we had just heard
seem comical; except there was nothing comical about the sight that assaulted
our eyes and the smells that insulted our nostrils.
As the 16 of us from Greystones
parish together with Fr. Shay Cullen were led around there was a stunned silence
at the sheer misery of the conditions. In each cell there were over 25 boys and
young men. Some as young as 13 years old. If they were to all lie down at the
same time there wouldn’t be enough floor space. Yes, they slept on the floor,
there were no beds, just a few flea ridden worn out blankets. Their dinner was
piled up on indented trays, I can’t imagine any dietician certifying that this
muck was
suitable for human consumption. In one corner of each cell was a small
area that was partitioned off with a low wall. This was the shower and toilet
area. For a shower there was a piece of hose attached to a barrel of water. This
area is also where some of the younger boys are sexually abused by some of the
older inmates and sometimes by those charged with caring for them. The often
quoted saying ‘you wouldn’t put a dog in there’ was never more appropriately
used. That anyone in their right mind considers this hellhole appropriate for
human beings is beyond belief. In this Youth Correctional Centre, (it wasn’t
called a jail, the fact that the boys were locked up behind bars is incidental)
all the boys were there because they were
charged with some crime. We were led
across the courtyard to another centre, again this was not a ‘Jail’ but it too
had locked gates and children behind bars. There were approaching 80 children
locked up in the worst smelling room I have ever had the misfortune of smelling.
The children in this second centre were not there because they had done anything
wrong. No crime had been committed, they were there simply because it is
government policy to round up homeless children and keep them behind bars. Their
little lives consist of sitting squatting together like sardines. To get an
education, or even to run around like children everywhere love to do, is a
luxury that evades these children. We left these two barbaric institutions with
very heavy hearts.
The 16 of us from Greystones parish were in the Philippines to be introduced to the reality of the various situations in which the PREDA foundation works. It was a two week emotional rollercoaster. We saw some of the most awful things imaginable and also some of the most wonderful. At the PREDA centre there is a home for boys and a home for girls. Each month there is a birthday party for all the girls who have had their birthday that month and on another day a party for the birthday boys. We were present for the girls birthday party.
They had two large cakes for
Sarah, Ana, Ginalyn and Queen, who all celebrated their birthdays in August. To
see the girls running around, playing games, screaming and shouting, having fun
as children should was wonderful and it did your heart good.
For a while you
could forget that every one of these little angels have suffered sexual abuse,
some at the hands of family others from the sex industry. Sitting amongst these
girls as they played and had fun, you had to try and not think of the
unspeakable evil that each of them in their short little lives had experienced.
Rather you just listened to the joy and laughter and normal sounds of children
having fun. To know that they were safe at PREDA and were being given a chance
to live their childhood was all that you could focus on.
On one very memorable day we
traveled on the PREDA bus to a remote village where a tribe of indigenous people
live. Part of the reason it was so memorable was that the bus had to cross a
river but the river was deeper than the driver first thought and half way across
we got stuck. So we all had to bale out and push the bus out of the rising
water. One of the projects of PREDA is to help people to become self sufficient
and to get a fair wage for their work On the side of a mountain, with this
family of indigenous people we planted Mango trees. Planting the trees was quite
emotional for what we were doing was investing long term in the future of this
family, for in five years time these trees will start producing mangos which
will become a source of income. Later as we had our lunch we watched a man with
the he of a caribou prepare a paddy field for rice planting. We then were
entertained with some dances that were traditional to this people. In return we
made an attempt at showing them some Irish set dancing.
On another day we traveled to
see some of the other cottage industries that are supported by PREDA. A little
lady invited us into her home where in front of our eyes on her sowing machine
she produced a lovely handbag. Her raw material was used fruit juice containers,
similar to what we would know as Capri-Sun. Later that day we saw how an
enterprising family produce pumice stones from volcanic rock. We learned that
there are thousands of people in various parts of the Philippines who benefit
from the support that PREDA gives them.
We were brought on a tour of
what used to be American’s largest military base in Asia. In the 80’s and early
90’s PREDA ran a highly controversial international campaign to have this base
and another like it shut down. This campaign was not inspired from anti-military
or anti- American sentiment; rather it was against the prostitution industry
that thrived around the bases. Many soldiers on shore leave frequented the
countless sex bars and brothels. For fear of contracting AIDS some of the men
who used prostitutes looked for younger and younger girls.
Thousands of young
teenagers and even girls as young a five or six were forced into this seedy
underworld. In 1992 the Philippines did not renew its treaty with America and so
the bases had to close. Since then 80 to 90 percent of the prostitution industry
has also had to close.
But the sex industry has not
gone away completely. One of PREDA s projects is to reach out and rescue
underage girls who work in the sex industry. Some of the staff regularly visit
the sex bars. There they try to make contact with any underage L girls they see
there and encourage them to come to PREDA where they will be cared for and
receive an education. Over the years many hundreds of girls have begun new lives
as a result of PREDA’s interventions. While we were there we accompanied some of
the PREDA staff to a number of sex bars.
What we saw was truly shocking. We saw
girls being lined up, just like cows are lined up in a cattle mart, so that a
group of men could decide which girls they wanted. In one bar we walked in on a
show. It even feels degrading calling it to mind. I could only describe it as
watching the destruction of a human soul. Two of the males in the group were
offered girls, one of them was certainly less than seventeen. The price was the
equivalent of about twenty five euros. The only condition in being given a girl
was that you brought her back by the following afternoon. It was one of the most traumatising things I have ever experienced.
While we were there we heard of a kidnapping of a baby The police were not interested in going to the trouble of investigating. Bert, the legal officer at PREDA got on the job and spent a fu day going from village to village searching for the missing child. He eventually tracked the child down and was able to get her back to her mother. This would make the front page news in Ireland but in a country where corruption is rife, the life of a very poor child is not of much concern to the authorities.
Many of the group accompanied
the children to a clean river where they all do their own laundry. This is one
way in which the children are taught life skit After washing their clothes the
leave them on bushes to dry and then have an afternoon of fun playing games and
having a swim.
As a group we also had some fun. We got to a Tiger safari park, a real treat was being able to feed milk to a tiger cub. We also got to visit a marine park where we had an opportunity to swim with a dolphin and a whale. Another interesting adventure was taking a four hour hike through the rainforest.
In every big town and city in
the woild there are homeless children, and Olongapo is no different. PREDA has
an outreach programme where they bring food to these children. However because
it was the rainy season the homeless children were much more difficult to find
as they took shelter from the monsoon rains.
Towards the end of our two weeks we went to Castillejos where the new centre for the boys who have been released from prison is being constructed. The first phase of the project is nearing completion. This is a training centre which will offer accommodation for 25 and be a place where many will be able to learn a trade. We had a ribbon cutting ceremony and a presentation of a piece of Wicklow granite, one of the stones that was rescued from being pulverised into dust at the 24 Hours of Hard Labour Thinking back on the eight months since the Breaking Stones idea was first conceived of, and on how so many people in Greystones spontaneously got involved and raised so much money, and then to be standing under the roof of this building was one of the most wonderful feelings I have ever had. I have never been present at a birth but this I guess was the next best thing. I was immensely proud of what we as a parish had achieved. In the middle of such awfulness we were here involved in doing something that is immensely good. It was a tremendous blessing to be able to be doing something to help the poorest of the poor of our world.
The group who visited the
Philippines, who went on the emotional rollercoaster of seeing the reality of
some of the most awful darkness in our world, have returned to Ireland with a
determination to be involved in advocating on behalf of the abused, the
imprisoned, the neglected and abandoned. These people can speak from a position
of first hand knowledge. They can use their experience as a weapon for good. In
whatever advocacy they will be involved in, what is clear is that they will be
working for the building up of the kingdom of God.
Since coming home the group has
met a number of times and are preparing a number of activities. They will join
the Justice Group in forwarding the Justice agenda. Initially they are planning
to work in 4 areas. 1. Fundraising. The group are currently in the
process of developing a sponsorship campaign, e.g., training equipment for new
centre, mango trees for planting on new site, crops for new site, school books,
etc. 2. Awareness raising. The group are designing a presentation for
delivery to the parish, transition year programmes across the country, possibly
guides, scouts etc. 3. Media.
We are looking at how to use the media
strategically in the short term but also with a view to keeping the profile of
PREDA out there on a constant basis 4. Local Awareness. Designing a new
big canvas sign to show the parish the exact amount raised with some images of
the new centre currently being built from said monies.
It was an amazing privilege to share the experience with this wonderful group of people and I wish them every blessing going forward - Fr. David.
