When the Trump administration cut USAID funding, it halted vital resources for rescuing, protecting, healing, and empowering vulnerable children abused by their families, paedophiles and U.S. servicemen. In response, British-Filipino band Ooberfuse has been working directly in Olongapo, Philippines, with the People’s Recovery, Empowerment, and Development Assistance Foundation (PREDA) and its founder, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Columban Fr. Shay Cullen. Through a music project featuring compelling imagery, they aim to raise awareness of the foundation’s critical work among new audiences.
Fr. Shay says: “Now more than ever, engaging new supporters, partners, and student interns is vital to the success of our work with exploited, trafficked, and abused children. With rising tensions with China, the American government has reopened its military bases in the Philippines to safeguard U.S. interests in Southeast Asia. As history has shown, the reopening of these bases will inevitably lead to increased sexual and drug-related exploitation of Filipina women and children in sex bars and drug dens, catering to the demands of U.S. sailors. The combination of the trade war with China and the loss of USAID funding creates a perfect storm. Urgent action is needed to continue our crucial mission of rescuing, protecting, healing, and empowering the vulnerable and defenceless.”
Cherrie Anderson from Ooberfuse adds, “Growing up in the Philippines, I know that the biggest roadblock to addressing child abuse—so prevalent in so many cities and towns—is a prevailing culture of silence. Like an impenetrable curtain that blocks out the sun’s rays, this silence prevents children from speaking out against the betrayals and violations they endure. Music is a powerful tool to break this silence and bring light into the darkness.”
Hal St. John of Ooberfuse explains “My heart was bursting with joy when we first heard the children singing at the top of their lungs, ‘We will overcome,’ by ‘speaking truth to power.’ Though these children arrive at PREDA broken by their traumatic experiences, they leave transformed after healing therapies that help reassemble the broken pieces. Fr. Shay’s incredible work stands at the very frontier of a brave new world—one where all traces of child abuse are erased once and for all.”
All proceeds from this music project will go to PREDA. To donate directly to PREDA, to support victims of abuse, please click here: https://preda.org/donate/
