Dear Friends and supporters,
Here at Preda main centre just outside Olongapo City and at the Preda children’s homes
all is well, despite the spreading Coronavirus, the homes are operating efficiently, and the children are recovering from trauma and abuse and the program is being implemented as always. There are fifty girls in the Victoria Home We are taking strict precautions,protective measures so noinfection will enter the Preda homes for children.
No Visitors. However, the children do not go out on outings due to lock-down and safety.
No visitors are allowed to the children’s homes, the children call their parents and relatives by phone. One child had stomach sickness last week and the staff took her to
hospital and after one day she recovered.
Reorganized. At Preda we have reorganized our staff working shifts so that the staff by
their own request and agreement stay longer on duty and then go home and rest longer.This cuts down the number of journeys and reduces the possibility of exposure to the coronavirus. The Senior staff, Exicom, visit the homestwice a week each, Sir Francis and Sir Emman, and to give support to the staff and children. Other staff work from home.
The Preda education team, PEPS is on stand down they go to the children’s homes twice
a week to give group dynamic sessions to support the staff and inspire the children The
children are very understanding of the situation as clearly explained to them and they see the news reports on TV.
Kids in Jails. The great concern is for the children in the jail detention centres.
We have called for them to be released to their families or to Preda. They could get the virus I detention and no one will know if and when they die. The Bahay-Pagasa are not releasing them to us at this time. We will rescue many more when the lock-down over. Funds are needed. Due to the close of down of business many people out of work and that means much less donations to support the 50girls and 42 boys the lack of funds for supporting the children is a problem at present for the Zambales homes. We hope and trust that our supporters and partners will come through as soon as possible and help us in these difficult times. Anyone can donate through PayPal online or bank to bank to any of our accounts see below. Donate: Paypal or bank account go to www.preda.org Remember our childhood. I ask all to remember their childhood and thank God if it was happy, please help these children at Preda have a happy future and many more that we help outside who have had abuse in their family. We recently did a project with the rescued boys in the Preda Home to assist them in their emotional expression therapy to work off their trauma. Afterwards they drew pictures of the methods of torture they suffered in the jails. It is very shocking what was done to them. Food distribution. We are using special donations for food sharing for the many out-of- work day workers in the communities near the Preda main. Every week we give food to 300 families, rice, canned fish, beans. Mango sales are way down and we had a big foreign exchange loss of €20,500 Euro in 2019. The Fair-Trade partners have reduced their orders. Sales of dried mango and mango products will be even lower with the lock-down in Germany and the UK and world recession is upon us. Please when you go shopping in the UK, Ireland and Germany look and ask for the Preda dried mangos or buy online at forestfeast.com. The Aeta indigenous communities need help too we work with them as partners in buying their mangos at high prices that is Fair Trade. We hope for a good harvest this year. They are restricted in travel cant earn like before and we will provide them with rice and canned goods also. Take every care, stay safe and help your neighbour. Best regards, Fr. Shay Cullen, the Preda team and children. Donate: Paypal or bank account go to www.preda.org Editor’s Note: Profiles in Catholicism is blessed to have Father Shay as an Editorial Advisor. Father Shay has been nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize and is a recipient of Human Rights awards.