Sharing experiences: Executive Director, Philippines
Name: Crystal Sprague
Position: Executive Director
Organisation: My Refuge House
Country/State where based: Cebu, Philippines
1. Tell us a little bit about your role and how you're involved in supporting children affected by sexual exploitation and related trafficking?
My Refuge House has been providing care and services in Cebu, Philippines to survivors of sexual exploitation since January 2009. Because my background is in social work, and particularly group home work, I moved to Cebu in July of 2009 to assist the then new organisation with training staff and developing policies and procedures. Eventually I applied for the Directorship at the Cebu facility. Using what they had learned in their first year and a half of operations, in addition to what other similar facilities had learned around the world, I recreated the programme to incorporate a holistic framework that addresses the psychological, educational, medical, nutritional, recreational, spiritual and family needs that exist in each of our survivor's lives. We recently hired a new Director in Cebu, and I've transitioned to a role stateside as the Executive Director of My Refuge House. In this role, my primary job is communicating to our partners and supporters what is happening on the ground in Cebu and raising awareness for the continued needs of sexual exploitation survivors.
2. What activities and assistance does your organisation offer to children and their families who have been affected by sexual exploitation and/or trafficking?
We have found that there are key areas of vulnerability that the majority of our survivors face, which have led them to be more susceptible to exploitation. One area is lack of formal education. In the Philippines, without education, it is extremely hard to find a job, and this often leads children and their parents to believe the promises of far-fetched offers of employment. All of the girls in our home are between 2 and 10 years behind in their formal education. The other key area of vulnerability we see is previous abuse. The majority of the girls in our home were either sexually, physically or emotionally abused before they were exploited.
At My Refuge House, we want to address these vulnerabilities by providing formal education, counselling, and family interventions and support when appropriate. We also want to equip the girls with whatever else we can give them to ensure that they will have the skills necessary to address the challenges of life when they are ready to leave us. This includes nutritional education and cooking lessons, life skills classes, parental skills training (when appropriate), job training skills, conflict resolution, art and music, spiritual expression, group therapy, and basic medical classes including reproductive health. We also address a variety of medical needs because most of the girls have not had access to any kind of health care, and the majority of them develop STIs when they are exploited.
We also have started providing education to communities, especially the ones that the girls in our homes have been trafficked from. Prevention is always better than cure, and as much as possible, we need to let people know how to protect their sons and daughters.
3. What are the biggest challenges in working in this area?
No matter how big our home is, it can never be big enough for the amount of need that exists in the Philippines. Knowing that there are so many more girls and boys trapped into horrific situations without hope, is definitely one of the biggest challenges.
In addition, working with survivors of abuse, in any context is a long, hard process, and our girls are no exception. They have to rebuild and redefine their entire view of life and that takes time and patience and a lot of hard work. Very much like teaching a baby. They have to learn how to hold their head up before they can learn how to run! And you cannot skip teaching the sitting up, crawling and walking steps either, each one serves a vital function and if you aren't prepared to be patient through each step the progress can become disheartening.
4. What are the highlights?
I find it hard to express how incredible it is to see one of the girls' lives change, right before your eyes. It's sort of like watching a wilted, dejected dying flower being nursed back to a vibrant, healthy, blooming flower. To see the joy and hope of life return back into the eyes of our girls as they begin to feel safe and loved and cared for (many for the first time ever) is a priceless, incredible experience.
5. What do you think works well or is important for children in their recovery and why?
A family style environment and caring consistent adults willing to invest in the children's lives. Studies show that the children who recover from trauma and abuse share that in common: one caring consistent adult that they are able to depend on. Finding quality staff is the first most critical step to doing the work.
Also, trauma informed interventions are extremely important. Giving grace to the kids as they learn how to cope and teaching them how to identify their "triggers" has been very helpful for our kids. So has narrative based group therapy programmes, allowing the girls to find hope and healing in their own stories, has been invaluable to them. So has dedicating time to appropriate conflict resolution, and empowering the kids to solve their own conflicts.
6. What knowledge or information would help you and your colleagues strengthen your work?
More research on specific trauma interventions with survivors in South East Asia.
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