Helping Mary Build Nazareth
by Ryan Mark
The Freeman, 16 March 2006
Sometime in the 90’s there was a girl named Susan. She was a native of Bacolod whose childhood was definitely a nightmare. Her parents would beat her black and blue at the slightest mistake and his father would fondle her genitals as a punishment. She would protest and beg for mercy but her parents would instead tell her to run naked so the neighbors would see her. When she later decided to live with an aunt who sent her to school, she was almost raped by her uncle, prompting her to run away from home supposedly to try her luck in Cebu at the age of 15. To make the story short, Susan ended up at a prostitution den in Kamagayan where, in her own words, women are priced according to beauty.
From being an abused child, Susan became a sex slave at the hands of men who never cared how she felt as long as their sexual desires were fulfilled. “One time, I was gang raped. I was sold to a Filipino customer who pretended he was alone. When we arrived at the hotel, there were ten policemen from the Narcotics section waiting for us. I was dragged inside and my clothes were stripped off. While pointing a gun at me, they took turns raping me. It was horrible. This kind of sex slavery lasted for two years,” this was how she described her sad plight in a book entitled “From Darkness to Light” by Sr. Mary Soledad L. Perpiñan, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women.
There were twists and turns in Susan’s tale until she became a single parent. Her pitiful revelation is just one of the many stories in the book that tells the journey of abused women who found comfort, renewal and purpose under the wings of the TW-MAE-W. In her case, Susan finally found her way to the Belen sa Cebu Drop-in Center located along P. del Rosario Street just across Kamagayan. In there, Susan took temporary shelter where she was given freedom to decide what she wanted for her and her child. She eventually chose to be sent to the Nazareth Growth Home in Quezon City where she could have a good beginning ensconced in the warmth, love and friendship of people who are more than willing to help and care without being rewarded.
Belen sa Cebu has been around since 1997, already reaching out to hundreds of women who are entangled in sex trafficking or are victims of rape and incest. The number of abused women is growing so that Sr. Mary Soledad feels there is an immediate need to build a Nazareth Growth Home in Cebu to take care of victims from here, as well as from those in neighboring provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao. The organization has actually acquired a lot in Barangay Babag but the construction could not start due to lack of money. This is where Sr. Mary Soledad appeals for help for the benefit of abused women out there.
In Nazareth, victims will be called trainees in a renewal course that will last for three months. The trainees will have the opportunity to live a normal life that society has deprived them of: clean surroundings, an ambience of beauty, nourishing food, regular sleeping hours, a program that captures their interest, morning and evening prayer and Sunday worship, space and time to grow. In Nazareth, as days go by, women are gradually changed into ordinary girls.
“The main thing that we would like to be done is assistance for the building because we lack funds. The money to buy the land came from Manila. We really need to raise about two to three million,” Sr. Mary Soledad confided.
She said the assistance that they received so far for the construction of Nazareth came from outside Cebu in forms of cash and discounts in the purchase of materials. “I have arrangement but again it’s not from Cebu. It is from General Santos. The owner of CITI Hardware keeps in touch with the Cebu branch and we get discounts. I might also be able to get something from some people I know in Manila who might have branches here. But we would like to see yung offerings ng mga tao dito. They don’t have to be rich. We know how the people can be generous and if they can be generous why not the people here?” she pointed out. Since 1997, the only assistance she got from Cebu is a two-room house that serves as temporary shelter for the victims. Mrs. Vilma Lee gave this to her, rent-free.
Sister Sol who is a member of the Good Shepherd Congregation started TW-MAE-W in the Philippines in 1980 at the height of sex tourism and military prostitution in Subic. Since then, the organization has established at least seven drop-in centers located in Quezon City, Pasay, Batangas,, Angeles, Subic, General Santos and Cebu. Aside from these, it has also constructed two growth homes and two transition homes.
An educator, Sr. Sol is also a writer, ecofeminist, peace practitioner and social activist who was among the 1000 women nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize last year. She was cited among the women activists worldwide of the 20th century in the “roll of Honour” of the UN General Special Assembly Session. She succumbed to rheumatoid arthritis in 1987 but it never stopped her from fulfilling her mission. “My weakness has been my strength in accompanying the survivors of society’s social sin of sex tourism, military and development prostitution on the road to their own empowerment,” Sr. Sol declared in her book.
She explained to The Freeman last Tuesday that she wanted to debunk the notion that once a prostitute always a prostitute. “I found out that there is way out. If there is a chance to change; they change.” Her personal sacrifice include being bound to a wheelchair as she traveled abroad to attend to the activities organized by the United Nations and even on her visits to the various homes, including the one in Cebu.
“I’m a Good Shepherd sister. Our main work is to really reach out to the marginalized women and girls who have this kind of problem. The congregation started with St. John Eudes who established nuns to take care of prostitutes in the 17th century. It’s our heritage and I feel privileged that I am carrying out the original work. It’s a difficult work and I feel challenged and inspired to do it,” Sr. Sol explained.
She is right. It’s a difficult work especially when the project is cash-trapped, depending only on donations. But if she would not do it, who else will? And how many other Susans will surface to tell their similar story of abuse and suffering again and again?
In Nazareth, Susan was able to pick-up the pieces of her broken youth and reconstruct them to start a new life. “Since September 27, 2000, we have been under the wings of TW-MAE-W. This has been an important time for me, a time during which I’ve been helped in all levels: psycho-social, physical, spiritual, educational, cultural. We live like a happy family. And I have been healed and renewed in so many ways,” Susan declared in the conclusion of her story.
And as former Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, “you make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.” Why don’t we shell out a little of what we have to allow more Susans to achieve a happy ending?
For information on how you could be of help, contact T: 416 8407 or (02) 913 9255, or Sr. Sol’s mobile 0916 5030694 or email soledadperpinan@yahoo.com.