Home For Girls – Victoria’s Children’s Home
People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (PREDA) Foundation
The Preda is a rescue, protective, therapeutic healing center for children that are victims of human trafficking, domestic and community sexual abuse. In the Preda home they receive a welcome, affirmation, support and encouragement from the first day. They feel safe and protected from their abusers and experience freedom from the fear of abuse and exploitation. Through several therapies and especially the powerful Emotional Release Therapy they become free of the pain and anger that they have repressed for so long. They feel and receive the respect and care that they were denied outside. In one year 120 children are received and helped in the Preda home. After 6 to 8 months they complete their therapy and training and when they testify they are reiterated and enter the aftercare program,.
The children’s home is a spacious octagon building situated in Sakatihan Subic in a peaceful secluded forest environment. There the children receive all their personal needs. There is a daily program of formal and non-formal education. The child grows and gains self-confidence through discussion, teaching, group dynamics, games, play, life testimony, value formation, sports, dance, karate, art therapy and outings. This builds friendship among the children and staff and build trust and understanding.
This community life at Preda prepares the child to share, express and release the hurt and pain suffered by the abuse they endured. In the soundproofed and padded therapy room the Emotional Release Therapy enables the children to visualize and confront their abusers and to cry and shout as they challenge their sexual exploiters, rapists and traffickers. They can scream, shout as they punch and kick the cushions in expressing their feelings, This emotional release helps them recall and surface other buried memories of abuse and pain that they release also and this in time heals and frees them from those painful experiences.
This builds up the child’s self-esteem, self-confidence and personal dignity. It empowers them to stand for their rights and seek justice. They can testify clearly in court without fear and they win as many as twenty convictions of their abusers every year. When healed they are reintegrated into a safe and supportive family of a relative and are helped by the Preda aftercare program with a social worker assisting them to continue their schooling free to live a happy life.
