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johnpiermont |
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| Imeverybodysfellow |
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 About Me |
About the Founder
At 22, John Piermont (“Pierre”) Montilla founded Kabataang Gabay sa Positibong Pamumuhay (Peer Guides for a Positive Way of Life), or “Gabay,” to address the needs of children living and working on the streets of Iloilo City in the central Philippines.
Pierre knew well the challenges such children face. After running away from a privileged, but abusive, family at the age of 15, Pierre lived on the streets himself. “During my life on the streets, I found friends,” he relates. “I discovered how terrible their situation was and that I was not alone. I became involved in their activities such as snatching, pick-pocketing, theft, and drug running.”
While those days are now behind him, Pierre feels a special responsibility toward abandoned, runaway, and abused children. Now 28, he affirms that addressing the needs of such children is what gives his life meaning and purpose.
Through Gabay, Pierre advocates for the rights of marginalized and at-risk children, while providing them with access to food, reproductive health services, peer education, school supplies, and counseling support. Gabay focuses in particular on addressing the health and psychosocial needs of sexually exploited children, especially boys, who are part of what Pierre calls a “hidden epidemic.”
To date, Gabay has reached out to more than 100 street and working children, and organized a group of 30 prostituted youth to advocate for their rights. While ultimately his aim is that such children will have the opportunity and desire to pursue other life choices, an immediate goal is ensuring that they possess the knowledge and life skills to make healthy decisions.
Pierre stresses that any effort to address the needs of street children must engage them as active participants. “The children must decide for themselves,” he says. “We should be there only to assist them. We should not consider them as ‘target’ groups but as an ‘able’ group.”
In 2003, Gabay’s efforts were recognized when the organization was distinguished as one of Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations by the National Youth Commission for its “aggressive and revolutionary work in organizing prostituted boys and girls in the streets and in depressed communities.”
In the future, Pierre dreams of opening a halfway house and peace center in Iloilo where children can study, sleep, bathe, eat, learn basic life skills, and access income-generating opportunities. For now, Pierre feels deeply enriched by the work he is doing. “Every time I see children smile, I feel that I’ve been helped in healing my own past,” he says.
Taken from: http://www.nokia.com/link?cid=EDITORIAL_74075
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| User Joined: July 9, 2003 |
| Last Login: October 18, 2009
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