At the CRC

I'm working with an NGO in the Phils called the Children's Rehabilitation Center (CRC). They work with children that are victims of state violence.

This is an art therapy event for the kids leading up to a multi-org peace camp and rally in Manila in early Dec to protest the actions of the current gov.

In case you aren't keeping up, the current administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is accused of more extrajudical killings, forced disappearances, displaced peoples, and all round not being a good president than the infamous Marcos (displaced in 1986).

At this CRC event there were kids that suffered from:
- forced evacuation from their homes (including the woman and her nephew in this photo who are from the Basilan, Mindanao)
- parents being imprisoned for having a similar name to a supposed "terrorist" (as there are a limited number of Muslim names in the Philippines, this is a common event).
- parents (usually activists) that have "disappeared"--aka seen taken by military men and never having been heard from again.
- beatings at the hand of the military. Urban militarization is on the rise in the Philippines. According to the gov this is to curb crime (though isn't this the police's job?), but activists point that the militarization is in urban poor areas that the government wants to clear out. So random beatings like what happened to the teenage girls at this event are becoming more common as a form of intimidation.

It's an interesting time to be in the homeland folks...