ALL OF US want to live in a just society where cheating, exploitation and corruption have no place. Almost everyone wants a society that respects the values of the Gospel, and where all are treated equally with respect and dignity and people help each other like Good Samaritans.
This is the society all of us should strive to build while resisting the temptation to abuse and exploit others. Some people fall into the dark pit of corruption and dishonesty, and their wrongdoings damage the lives of the innocent and hurt God’s creation.
Human trafficking, illegal logging and burning of fossil fuels damage the environment, causing global warming and threatening the future of mankind. World temperatures increased again in 2024, exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold.
Good consumers who believe in protecting the Earth strive to counter these threats by working for economic and social justice and believing that fairness and equality will overcome injustice. They buy sustainable mango products produced through the Preda Fair Trade Project (www.predafairtrade.net) in shops and supermarkets in Europe. These products are made with concern for the environment and to help reduce global warming.
Preda Fair Trade and its supporters have provided 561 Aeta mango farmers and their families in 16 communities in Zambales with 10 clean-water supply projects and community training seminars on the rights of women and children. Since 2001, this project has distributed as many as 79,599 mango and other fruit tree saplings measuring 4 feet tall to these communities.
For consumers, fairness means being willing to pay a fair price that supports fair wages. They believe in buying products from producer-groups like Preda Fair Trade that share profits and give social benefits, education and training to producers and their children, as well as teach them to protect the environment. This keeps children of poor families in school and prevents human traffickers from recruiting them for exploitation.
Customers of fair-trade products help prevent human trafficking. One of the worst kinds of this is the sale of unwanted babies. In the Philippines, unwanted teenage pregnancies have reached an all-time high, and many young girls are selling their babies online even before giving birth.
In 2022, Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia did extensive undercover research that found and recorded many young women offering their babies, born or not, for sale on the internet, on street corners and through traders for as little as $100.
Many of these pregnant teenagers — some as young as 16 — are victims of domestic rape and abuse, and human traffickers get them into debt and force them to do sex work. The Preda Foundation, supported by Preda Fair Trade, is rescuing and healing many of them and saving their babies from abortionists or buyers. (To be continued)/PN
