Fair Trade must oppose sex-slavery
by Fr Shay Cullen
When I first began a small project to give poor people a skilled training and work with respect, dignity, fair wages and good working conditions. In 1975 it was not called Preda Fair Trade. It was and is, normal ethical practice to give work with dignity, a fair wage and good working conditions, which everyone is supposed to do. But many don’t. It was a practical way to alleviate the misery and degrading life of the throwaway people and youth of Olongapo City.
What is how Preda Development Fair Trade began in 1975 when children and youth were being jailed, and executed as criminals in the city during the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos. The youth were shot by a death squad for protesting the injustice or were suspected to be drug users.
I began a shelter for them, hired teachers and expert weavers and made a vocational training center in craft and wicker furniture making. When the youth graduated they had work with dignity.
The girls had no work they were recruited lured or forced by trickery and debt bondage into the sex bars and brothels. It is unworthy of the dignity and status, rights of children and women.
Full post here.
Fr Shay Cullen with indigenous farmers, Zambales, Philippines