BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
Preda Fair Trade
Preda Fair Trade helped 561 indigenous Aeta farmers this year in Zambales. After 3 years of almost no harvest due to climate change, there was a better organic mango harvest of Pico mango this year. Thirty-five tons of fresh, organic pico mangoes were gathered in June. The project has achieved the EU standard for an Organic Certificate issued by Control Union. The farmers got paid high prices and dividends. In addition, Preda Fair Trade implemented six major development projects in the villages, providing water supply with long hoses from the uphill source to stainless tanks in the villages,
The German development agency Giz provided funds and donations for rice and groceries, farm tools and 5,000 grafted mango saplings and 2,000 calamansi and rambutan saplings were distributed.
The famous fair trade shop in Eisenstadt, Austria collected donations and provided funds for the planting of 2,000 mango saplings. The fair trade shop in Eisenstadt is a strong regular supporter of the Preda childrenâs home for girls.
The Canadian agency, Rainbow of Hope Canada, provided funds for the education of the Aeta women and children, mango saplings and village water projects. The Aeta children also gained increased awareness about their rights, especially the importance of protecting women and children from early and forced marriages that is now prohibited by the new law forbidding âchild marriage.â Preda also helped lobby for the anti-child marriage law.
Preda Fair Trade in Mindanao has helped many small farmers in the Preda farmers association by paying high prices for their carabao mangoes. These are processed intoto dried mangos by the Preda fair trade project and the Preda fair trade distribution of cash bonus (dividend) payments and school supplies are given to many families. Preda dried mangoes are available around Ireland, the UK, and in German supermarkets and World Shops.
Preventing child trafficking and abuse
Some donor families set up their own scholarship fund with Preda for a deceased family member like the Jessica Smith Fund in memory of a lost daughter, the Bob & Kathrine Scholarship Fund and the Cullen Family Scholar Support Fund. Email shaycullen@gmail.com to set up your own fund and save a vulnerable, impoverished teenager in danger of being trafficked. Then, she and her children will be educated to break the cycle of poverty through education. All scholars get special support training and seminars on better living and value formation for life improvement. These Funds for marginalized youth at risk are supporting 29 teenagers, mostly girls, who were vulnerable prey for human traffickers and pedophiles. They were found and rescued from the danger and are now in college, some in high school, receiving monthly educational assistance. Other teenagers that graduated from Preda home for abused children are also in high school and college.
Predaâs advocacy work and cooperation
Preda advocates childrenâs rights and the human rights of all through social media- Preda Foundation facebook and website www.preda.org and articles are published in The Manila Times on Sunday (The Sunday Times) and other magazines and newspapers. You can be a part of this by, besides donating and supporting the rescue and recovery of trafficked and abused children, forwarding this newsletter to your friends and contacts. Send it to your local newspaper, they might write about the needs of children.
This year, Preda maintained its status as a registered, licensed and accredited social welfare and development agency by complying with hundreds of indicators in a tedious evaluation process by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Preda is one of only two non-government organizations in Central Luzon that is currently accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification. This means that Preda has very high standards of NGO operation and management in fulfilling its services for children.
Thank you for reading this and we wish you a blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with positive happy experiences. â Fr. Shay Cullen, Francis Bermido Jr. and the whole Preda team/PN
