Jubilee Action has been meaningfully assisting the victims of people trafficking in the Philippines for over 15 years. Working in Metro Manila, the projects are rescuing girls involved in the commercial sex trade.
Jubilee Action successfully rescues children from sexually abusive situations and provides a residential home complete with a therapeutic recovery programme. Through building up the child's self-esteem, confidence and personal dignity, we empower them to stand up for their rights and seek justice.
topAbout the Country
“The Philippines is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. There is substantial internal trafficking within the Philippines, primarily from rural to urban metropolitan areas, and sexual exploitation of children. Widespread poverty, high unemployment and sex tourism all contribute to significant trafficking activity in the Philippines.”
“The Government of the Philippines does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Over the last year, the Philippine Government stepped up efforts to implement its anti-trafficking law and made initial progress in implementing strategies to combat trafficking in persons, particularly in prosecuting human traffickers.” - Source - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2006.
Case study
Janet, aged 15, is one child who was enslaved in a life of sexual bondage before
our team rescued her from a brothel in Manila. Janet’s mother gave her to a pimp hoping she would meet a foreigner this way and marry into wealth. The pimp, instead, took her to a sex club where her life of exploitation began.
Janet was eventually rescued, but it took her almost a year of therapy to tell this horrific tale. Today she is recovering, attending school and picking up the pieces of her broken life. Everyday, girls like Janet are at risk of being forced into the commercial sex industry. Some may be sold into the business whilst others are tricked into prostitution under the guise of a better life.
topExplanation of the Project
For over 15 years Jubilee Action’s projects have provided refuge for children at risk of being trafficked into the commercial sex industry.
Childhood for Children Home
Jubilee Action’s Childhood for Children Home provides a therapeutic and protective home for up to 60 sexually abused children at any one time coupled with an outreach programme that reaches a further 60 children. There is both formal and informal education available at the home and includes training on HIV/AIDS awareness, drug abuse, child abuse. Public workshops and seminars are also conducted in local towns, to raise awareness of the rights of children.
Our home provides therapy to help the children work through the pain, cruelty and abandonment that each has endured. When we think of therapy we think of verbal communication, however in some cases the abuse is so extensive that the child cannot even look at another person let alone talk about their experiences. This was the situation with Joan; she had been so badly abused in her short life that she was completely expressionless when anyone was near her. She wouldn’t react in any way to questions or gestures; it was her defence, simply to withdraw from reality.
How do you help a child like Joan work through the neglect? The therapists working at the home use puppet shows to help the children. The shows tell the stories of girls with similar experiences; they use songs and bright colours. When Joan saw the puppets she started to smile and laugh at them, engaging with the stories and beginning the healing process. Often older girls help with the puppet shows, telling their stories through the puppets.
topHistory of the Projects
Jubilee Action has been working effectively in the Philippines for over 15 years. Our partner organisation, PREDA, was established in 1974 in Olongapo City, to help deal with the victims of abuse among the youth, drug dependants and sexually exploited women and children.
Olongapo’s local authorities hosted a huge sex industry that exploited women and children selling them to US marines in hundreds of clubs and brothels and on the street. This business caused the spread of drug abuse, back-street abortions, street children in prison and hundreds of abandoned Filipino-American children, and was one of the primary reasons for the spread of the HIV-AIDS virus.
Essentially it brought about broken homes, child abuse, children in prison, and other social evils on a huge scale. Our projects were set up to redevelop and empower Filipinos who stood against these injustices.
topAbout the organisation
Jubilee Action is a UK based children’s human rights organisation. Registered as a charity in 1992, Jubilee Action is dedicated to protecting children at risk of trafficking, sexual exploitation, conflict with the law, living on the street and being caught in conflict zones.
Our vision is to be instrumental in bringing hope and changing the lives of those who suffer unjustly.
Our mission is to pioneer work with indigenous partners providing crucial care and shelter for children and families as well as working for job creation within poor communities.
Jubilee Action currently works in 18 countries worldwide. Registered Charity Number 1013587
Take Action!
Ways for children to get involved:
1
You could have a sleep over, and have a puppet show.
2
You could make some cakes or cookies and sell them at school.
3
You could write a letter to the children in the Philippines to tell them you’re thinking of them.
4
Collect a Smarties tube filled with £1 coins.
5
If you are in the UK we could come and speak to you at an assembly, or hold a workshop.
6
You could put on a production about the lives of these children, a great way to involve both children and parents.
7
Hold a Non-Uniform Day in aid of Jubilee Action’s work.
Ways for Adults to get involved:
1
You could write to your local government, to raise awareness of this issue and ask for them to intervene.
2
You could give financially – Jubilee Action receives no Government funding and relies entirely on the support of concerned individuals.
3
Become a Jubilee Action representative and help motivate those around you into taking action to help these children.
Corporate support needed for Jubilee Action:
1
Allow us to help you draw up a corporate social responsibility policy.
2
Do you have a Payroll Giving scheme to provide employees with a motivational method of charitable giving?
3
Let us organise a team-building, challenge day for your employees.
4
Allow us to organise your end of year ball or party.
5
Perhaps your business could offer a gift in kind, if your services would help our growth.
6
Could you sponsor and support a Jubilee Action event, our magazine Just Right or even a member of our staff.
7
Encourage your employees to hold a fundraising event and match the money made.
Ways for Churches to get involved:
1
Please pray for the work of Jubilee Action.
2
Praise God for children such as Joan and Janet, and many more besides them, that have been rescued
3
Pray that they would be healed from their pains and traumas caused by years of abuse.
4
Receive our bi-monthly Prayer Diary, to help guide your prayers for the wider world.
5
Can your church make a financial contribution to the work of Jubilee Action?
6
Become a Jubilee Action Church Representative and help motivate those around you into taking action to help these children.
7
Hold an event at your Church in aid of the children of the Philippines.