JUSTICE delivered is punitive but also preventive. The abuser cannot abuse again in prison and conviction is a deterrence for others tempted to abuse children. Pedophiles are known to have many victims.
This success, 20 convictions a year, and the good work of healing and empowering children at Preda Foundation comes with an expensive monetary cost.
Supporting 68 children is a big challenge and every delay by a prosecutor making a resolution, the defense lawyer being absent and having multiple hearings to earn more money, or police failing to arrest a suspect, increases the cost of helping the child victim/survivor and prevents us from helping more children.
The protection and healing of child-victims is very expensive. Every month, the Preda Foundation spends P13,000 per child. At present, there are 68 child-victims at the Preda home. That is a total cost of P884,000 per month. The longer a child is in the center, the more expensive it is.
Delays cause child-witnesses to become sad, depressed and despondent, frustrated and angry. They want to go home and could even refuse to testify. When that happens, the justice system, with outstanding exceptions, has failed the child and is self-defeating.
If the child leaves the protection of Preda because of delays and is back home, the family of the accused will pressure her to withdraw her complaint before she can testify. The justice system fails to deliver justice in such cases.
Preda is licensed and one of the few accredited healing centers for abused children in the Philippines. It cares and heals the child-victims with a planned program of therapies with professional staff and vigorously pursues justice for the victims.
There are no Philippine corporations or church agencies financially supporting the work of the Preda Foundation in rescuing, protecting, healing and finding justice for child-victims.
The Preda Foundation does not receive any financial support from the Philippine government.
Preda has been serving abused children and campaigning for their rights to be respected and operating now for 50 years. Over recent years, from time to time, donors to the Preda charity have included embassies such as the Embassy of Canada, the British Embassy and the German Embassy as well as the USAID.
International bodies, such as the UN Anti-Slavery Fund and the UN Anti-Trafficking Fund, have picked up the challenge and have all helped support Preda over the short term. They are limited by law to only short-term support that they can give. Their funding comes to an end after six months to one year. It is difficult to plan ahead for the support of 68 abused children.
Charities in Germany have also contributed from time to time. Misereor and Missio are church agencies. Non-government organizations like Preda Freundeskreis, Space Lama, Tatort Verein and Aktionsgruppe are long-term supporters of Preda.
Fair trade shops also have donated to help meet the costs of helping so many children. A foreign corporation, World of Foods e.V based in The Netherlands, has also supported the work of Preda for the past several years.
Local government social workers refer their children to Preda for help and sometimes give a small donation. That is why is why the proposed new law establishing childrenās courts will also establish professionally-run government-funded therapeutic homes to protect and heal abused children.
If a corporation or individual donor wished to support the work of protecting and healing the abused children, they could avail of a tax deduction since Preda Foundation is an accredited charity by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) and a certified ādonee institutionā by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. (preda.org)/PN
