Graduation - Light From Darkness

It's graduation time in the Philippines, the most important day in the life for any aspiring student and especially for the children at the Preda home for girls and boys rescued form broken homes, abusive situations, brothels, and jails. They all have a new life.

This March two girls, Eileen and Maryann and two boys proudly graduated high school. No easy feat for those coming from impoverished backgrounds. The girls swept up all the honors and awards for excellence and leadership. Every hardship can be overcome, light can shine from darkness and in Easter season we need to see that in real life more and more. No matter how hard life may seem, how dark and hopeless, there are good loving people out there willing to help and give support to anyone in need.

Maryann’s father, an Australian who migrated from Finland, married a Filipino woman and then had two children, a boy and a girl. Bur the marriage did not work out. They had a comfortable home but her father died under mysterious circumstances and her mother went with another man reputedly a drug dependent. All the property was sold off and spent on drugs.

The children were abandoned, dropped out of school and Raymond became a street boy. Maryann then 15 years of age was offered a job in Angeles city in a sex bar supposedly waiting at a table, unaware of the danger she took. She was told she had debts to pay, was threatened, forbidden to leave and was forced to give sexual favors to the foreign customers. Sex slavery ironically, many of them were from Australia, the UK, Ireland, and America. The sex bars operate with the permits of the local mayors.

Maryann was rescued and brought to the Preda children’s home for exploited girls. She made a great recovery in the caring family atmosphere filled with affirmation, support and encouragement. Today she is one of the outspoken youth leaders of the Preda Youth organization, Akbay. She is a strong minded and determined young lady that is an advocate for children's and women rights. Maryann is also a talented actress and has traveled for the past three years to Europe in the star role in the Preda-Akbay theater play “Once we had a Dream”.

Having recovered from a life of neglect, hardship, poverty and exploitation she studied hard, discovered her talents and intelligence and is now an empowered young girl we all admire so much. “I want to work to help the other children that are abused and enslaved”, she recently told a journalist. “I don’t what them to suffer like I did, I want parents to be responsible and have more love in their families”.

The graduation this week is the high-point of her recovery, a valedictorian, academic excellence awardee and a bunch of medals. She is headed for college and like many other successful young girls she might choose to become a professional staff at Preda Children's Home helping many others that suffered like her, whom will be better to inspire and lead the children to recovery and victory over hardship.

Another victory this week is the story of Joyce. She is 12 years old. She was raped by her uncle and became pregnant and was in danger of being abducted before the baby could be born so that the family of the abuser could have a forced abortion to get rid of the evidence of rape that could carry a life sentence. Her fearful parents had sent a text message to the social workers of the Preda rescue team. They hurried to the remote village and brought her to the protection of the Preda Home for Children.

Within a few months she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy they named him Prince, after Jesus Prince of Peace, Prince was diagnosed with G6PD, a blood disease. We are getting all possible medical treatment for him. The Easter joy was the baptism of Prince in San Lorenzo church by Father Roque Villanueva, a member of the Preda board of trustees. It was a beautiful, happy and joyful occasion. Dozens of Preda staff participated with Prince and Joyce and so too with ten boys from the Preda boys home.