Dear Friends and Supporters

I am very pleased to open this news update with some highly encouraging news.
Early 2004 we entered our animation film on child sexual abuse, "Daughter, a Story of Incest", into a big international animation film festival in Annecy, France. The Annecy International Film Festival is an off spring of the Cannes festival and has been in existence for the past 40 years. This year there were more than 1500 entries from all over the world, but only 240 were selected for the final competitions. We were already thrilled when we learned a couple of months ago that "Daughter" was amongst those selected to be shown and compete at the festival ceremonies, which were to take place June 7 to 12.

Saturday night June 12 we received news from the festival committee that "Daughter" had won 2 first prices. One is for best educational film and the other one is from UNICEF. We are of course proud of the recognition, but even more so, we are pleased that ears, eyes, minds and hearts apparently are open to the issue of child sexual abuse in places far from our usual circles of outreach. According to Mr. Soeren Fleng, a Danish animator who represented Stairway at the ceremonies, the 1000 people audience was absolutely spellbound when "Daughter" rolled over the screen, and the decision of the jury was unanimous.

There is more good news about our programs and activities on the following pages. I hope you will find time to read it. 


Lars C. Jorgensen
Director, SFI

Week Without Walls and I Care Program

For the past five years students from the international School in Manila have come to Stairway for a week of interaction with children and youth who used to live on the streets. Every year it has been quite an emotional experience to see how these different groups of children and youth from very opposite poles of the social and economic divisions of society come to embrace each other in sincere appreciation and friendship. 

Last February a long time dream of Stairway came true, when we were able to extend this youth advocacy program to a group of international students from the Cairo American College. Our friend Mark Pleasants miraculously managed to overcome a mountain of obstacles and security concerns and convince the school and the parents of the worth of a trip all the way to the Philippines, and I am happy to say that it seems they are coming back next year. 
I will leave it up to another Mark to paint a picture of the Week Without Wall, as he experienced it. Mark Greenspan was a volunteer for another NGO in Manila and just happened to drop by Stairway during the event. Below you have some of his reflections and observations from the experience.

"Have you ever watched how strangers interact for the first time? A network of common interests, values and perceptions are searched out to link them together in a common bond. Typically, these strangers become friends because they look the same, dress the same and talk the same language. Sometime though, friendships permeate class identity, cultural backgrounds and even language. In a divided and tormented world there is more and more of a need to bridge differences. In this way we can better appreciate and learn from each other and better help the human family grow together. This was what 'Week Without Walls' was all about.

In the early weeks of February 2004 Stairway had over 20 high school students from the American School in Cairo paired up with 20 children who used to live on the streets of Manila. Watching these two groups come together was nothing less than magical.

The format of the week was cleverly organized into two main sections, reality and dreams. The reality section dealt with conveying the daily struggles faced by children living on the street in not only the Philippines but all around the world. They daily life of a child living on the streets and the complex issues they face were powerfully but gently conveyed through photographs, videos, theatrical presentations and first hand accounts. Gaping mouths, open eyes, intrigued faces and a wide variety of emotions swept over the group in the first few days of the week. Questions were asked, commonalities were discovered and friendship began to form. 

The dreams section of the week consisted of activities that encouraged participants to work together in dreaming of a world that they would like to live in. Masks were plastered; dream catchers were woven, dances practiced, monuments created and friendships continued to grow. A spirit of cooperation, sharing and love swept over everyone there. Minds were opened, people were affected and a change started to occur. Two separate groups from different countries and very different walks of life had become one unified group. United by dance, art and a mutual understanding and respect for each other. 

It's been about three months since 'Week without Walls' occurred but I can still feel its impact. For me, the week made me vividly aware of the ability to affect positive change through supportive, expressive and creative environments. With that said, I have no doubt that for every participant in the week there exists a powerful and profound lesson which will continue to resonate and be passed forward with every new friendship that is formed and stranger that is met."

Mark Greenspan can be contacted at: mark@markgreenspan.com

Child Sexual Abuse in Puerto Galera

It was still overcast after the early June storm and the beach was practically deserted, just aside from the middle aged foreign man, who was in the shallow water near to a little local boy. When the man saw us coming, he hurried to the shore and walked back to the beach resort, where he stayed. The little boy, who was naked, stayed behind.

The scene described took place at the beach just outside of Stairway and the little boy is six years old and happens to be one of the many indigenous friends of our son. When asked why he was with the foreign man, he told us that the man had given him money and promised that he could get more.

It seems that this is becoming an all too familiar scene here in Puerto Galera. Pedophiles are preying on the extreme poverty and limited education and awareness of a certain portion of the local population. Unless examples are stated that the strict laws against child abuse in the Philippines are actually enforced, we can expect a lot more pedophiles to roam our beaches. 

The two major cases of child sexual abuse involving some 30 children that were unveiled last February are still ongoing. One of the pedophiles, who were jailed, a German national, was allowed to go out on bail and took the opportunity to commit suicide. An American national is still sitting in the provincial jail in Calapan on charges of sexual abuse. How long it will be to process his case is unsure. Most of the hearings scheduled so far have been postponed, which is nothing new in cases as such. It is common here that the court procedures in cases of child sexual abuse add another unfortunate aspect to the whole issue. There are very few family courts in the Philippines and many judges are not particularly sensitive to the special needs of children in these cases

Prevention Work and Scholarships 

Since it would be rather optimistic to rely on our local police force in terms of positive action with notable deterrent effect, we need to train the local teachers on the issue of child sexual abuse to be able to empower our children to better protect themselves. 
Over the past months we have held 15 workshops on children's rights and prevention of child sexual abuse for a total of 271 children and 226 teachers, staff from the rural health clinics and volunteers from the church from all over Puerto Galera. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical regarding the reaction of the church to our campaign against child sexual abuse, but after having met with the parish priest, and after several members and volunteers of the church have attended the workshops, we are now being bombarded with requests for more workshops and trainings. With this good fortune we try to actively involve the various groups within the church to reach out to the children in schools with the workshops. Parallel to this church based strategy for wide dissemination, we are planning to pilot another approach in the province of Cavite, where we will go through the Council for the Welfare of Children. The initial step, which is the training of trainers will start this August, but the actual implementation will be in the coming year due to budget constrictions

Local Initiatives

Through the workshops we aim to increase the participants' knowledge about child sexual abuse and thus their understanding and competence in case they will be confronted with abused children in the future. We also hope to inspire them all to play an active role in terms of advocacy in their barrios of residence. All the workshops are concluded with a session where all the participants group themselves according to their home barrio and develop an action plan for them to follow in this new school year. 
It has been very encouraging to experience the participants' enthusiasm to learn more about a subject that has been kept in the darkness of taboo in the past. They expressed sincere concern that so many children have been abused here in our relatively small municipality, and many were dissatisfied and frustrated by the incompetence, indifference or corruption displayed by our local police force. We can only hope that increased awareness and a strong consensual sentiment against any form of child sexual abuse in our community and in society as a whole will eventually penetrate into the ranks of those least empathetic to the detrimental consequences of the crime

Poverty, Education and Abuse

There is a well documented connection between poverty, level of education and children's vulnerability towards abuse; especially sexual abuse and exploitation. This is a fact well known to those with the intent of abuse, and thus becomes a guide in their search and selection of prey. 
At the small island San Antonio in Puerto Galera, 16 young girls aged 9 to 14 were sexually abused by a German pedophile, Rene Havekost, over a period of two years. Under the pretense and the cover of a scholarship program, Rene Havekost established a relationship with several families on the island, before he started abusing the girls. After one of the victims disclosed last February, Havekost fled the island and went to Manila, where allegedly he is still at large. The initial reaction from the families of the victims was complete denial until the time where several girls shared their traumatic experiences and the medical examinations proved them right

Counseling and Scholarship

In collaboration with our partner, Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Sexual Abuse, we have offered counseling to all of the victims and their families over the past four months, and we have now decided to extend our assistance to a scholarship program for those most in need. With the disclosure of the abuse several families were left with nothing but a sense of shame, and for some of them without any means to finance the education of their children in high school. The daily expense on transportation between the island and the public high school is 28 pesos, equivalent to 50 cents US. We are not simply continuing the so called scholarship program that was initiated by Rene Havekost, since that would surely prolong the labeling of the girl victims. Besides, we do have very different criteria for selecting who qualifies for educational assistance, so we have made an assessment of all students on the island attending the public high school and concluded that 18 of them qualify for assistance

Support needed

With an additional 18 scholars from San Antonio we are now giving financial assistance to a total of 53 students. Most of them are in high school, but we do extend our support to a few scholars in college though. One of them is Maricel Solis, who was introduced in the last newsletter as we were looking for support to finance her studies. We already have 7 people who have agreed to contribute with 100 $ US per year over a 4 year period, but we still need a few more contributors to cover the expenses. 
If you wish to help support Maricel or other students under our program, please feel free to contact us. Your help is needed and most appreciated. I will place the necessary bank information at the bottom of this newsletter

Animation against Child Sexual Abuse

Late February I had the pleasure to present "Daughter" at the VIVA Network's Asia Cutting Edge Conference in Malaysia, attended by some 250 delegates from churches and child oriented programs around South Asia. 
The animation toolkit was received with much enthusiasm, and it appears that many groups in other countries are very interested to translate the material into their own respective languages to use it with most effect possible. The Tagalog version has already been completed and is now ready for distribution.

In March, "Daughter" had its official premiere in Denmark. Stairway Denmark organized the event at the Film School in Copenhagen, and more than a hundred people from different sectors of society applauded the film and the initiative to address the issue through animation. The animator behind the film, Paw Ravn, was in the audience, and he got much and well deserved applause for his volunteer commitment and the quality of his work.

With the prices and the recognition given to "Daughter" in Annecy, we hope it will be possible for us to find a distributor, who can help spread the material around the world for the protection and the benefit of large numbers of children

New Animation Project

With the promise of a very substantial and generous additional grant from our main partner, Kindernothilfe, we have ventured into the next animation production for the prevention of child sexual exploitation. Though Kindernothilfe is our principal partner in this new animation project, we also receive significant support from our other partners, Leger Foundation in Montreal Canada, the Finnish Embassy in Manila and Stairway Denmark. The animation "A Good Boy" is a 22 to 24 minutes animation about a boy, who is being sexually abused by a foreign pedophile. The film is scheduled for release by the end of the first quarter 2005

Children's Rights/Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Workshops for Children in Detention

Children in detention having workshops on children's rights can seem almost ironic. Never the less, during 2003 we facilitated 4 workshops in BBBRC, which is part of a large drug rehabilitation center in Manila with 2000 inmates; around 200 of them being children. 
For the past 5 years we have received a number of children from the BBBRC for rehabilitation and education, and through their stories and social interaction we became aware of some of the unfortunate behaviors transpiring within the walls of the institution. There are 2 social workers and one psychologist assigned to cover the needs of the 2000 inmates, and due to lack of staff it is senior adult inmates, who are assigned to be the guards of the children. 
It is no surprise that such a set up leaves little protection for the children, but the number of disclosures we got was still overwhelming and convinced us on the urgency to implement more programs in such institutions on prevention and treatment of sexual abuse. 
Based on our findings we hired an additional social worker with the particular purpose to work in detention centers. However, with the many serious cases of child sexual abuse that happened here in our home town earlier this year, we suddenly needed all the manpower and expertise we could mobilize to work at our own door step. I sincerely regret to say that we had no other choice than to postpone the planned activities in the detention center even though the matters at hand there were way too serious and urgent to become subject to secondary priority. Now we are back to our original activity plan for this year, and we will do all we can to redeem our absence during the first 2 quarters of this year. We will continue the prevention workshops for the children and we will offer counseling for those abused; and further more we will try to use our network to force some highly needed structural changes within the institution

Residential Program

Residential programs do not provide a solution to the street children problem, but should rather be considered as a necessary emergency relief. We have chosen to aim our relief efforts at street children with tuberculosis and those in jail. The first group is prioritized because TB poses a grave risk to anybody in contact with the patient, and untreated the disease is most likely to be fatal. The second group we prioritize because we find the jails or detention centers just about the only place worse for a child to be than on the streets!

During the month of May, 13 children moved out of Stairway and on to new destinations after one year in our program. All of them were in excellent health. Some we could refer to their immediate families and others were referred to partner agencies for further education. 
From the very moment these children enter into Stairway's program they are aware of the time limit of their stay here, but never the less the transition to another place can be very difficult. This year we experienced that 3 boys decided to run off and back to the streets at the time they were going to transfer, despite the fact that they were enrolling in a very good program with excellent possibilities for developing useful skills for their future. But, this is of course seen from a very adult perspective. Their concern for education and future job opportunities within a society with soaring unemployment and no social security are not exactly great. It is the moment at present that matters, and they find it hard to leave the family like set up they experience at Stairway. I can say though, that for most of the children, who venture back to the streets, it is usually a short lived experience. Most will seek into a center and accept the conditions there rather than staying on the streets.
On one hand the children's wish to hold on to the quality of life they experience here at Stairway is reassuring, but on the other hand, it is far from desirable that some of them come to refuse any alternative afterwards. We can probably easily agree that one year in a family atmosphere with love and care is not much for children to whom abuse and neglect has been the daily menu for most of their lives. However, we can not limit our reach to just a lucky few and carry them on to adulthood, and besides, we have already experienced that long term residential stay does not prepare them any more to face life on the outside. Sometimes even the contrary, as long term residential programs tend to breed dependency.
So, instead of extending the duration of the program we will aim to improve our efforts in the process of preparing the children for the new challenges that lie ahead of them and make the process of change more attractive. This is our great challenge for the new batch of children that has just arrived

Other Events 

• Computer Classes
  This summer we continued our computer classes. A total of 26 teachers and students from our local community learned basic and more advanced skills.

• Special Children Camp
  For the 11th consecutive year we had 2 groups of special children and youth from Elsie Gaches Village down for summer camps. As usual, they all had a fabulous time and as usual the camps were generously sponsored by Mrs. Bea Zobel.

• Hospital Equipment
  Thanks to a remarkable volunteer effort from a group of people in Stairway Denmark, we were able to bring in a 40 foot container full of high quality hospital equipment to be distributed between the provincial hospital in Calapan, the municipal clinic in Puerto Galera and a new clinic for the indigenous people run by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Anne in Talipanan. 
  The Puerto Galera Municipal Council is working on a major expansion of the existing clinic to actually become a government hospital. When that is going to happen we hope to be able to tap on the same resources for more assistance. The only deterrent factor in this project of goodwill and volunteerism was the process of getting the equipment through customs in Manila. Although corrupt customers are an expected characteristic of any developing country, it is never the less very unfortunate that a few individuals are given the space to discourage worthy initiatives for the benefit of the poorest of the population.
  

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