Humanitarian Award For Fr. Shay

Preda Foundation founder and Anluwage.com segment writer Fr Shay Cullen is to be honoured with the Humanitarian Award at the 2009 Meteor Ireland Music Awards together with a donation of 100,000 Euro. The awards will be held at RDS, Dublin St Patricks Day 17th March.

Fr. Shay Cullen, nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a
Missionary priest from Dublin and a member of the Missionary Society of St.
Columban who has worked tirelessly in protecting women and children and human
rights in the Philippines since 1969.

He established Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in the Philippines in 1974 to
promote human rights, justice and peace. He strives to eliminate child abuse and
promote respect for children's rights by attempting to change the unjust
economic, political and social structures and attitudes that allow such abuse.

He has developed twelve Preda
projects which aim to educate for peace, free children from brothels and jails
and give them a chance to recover in therapeutic homes and be reintegrated to
have a happier life free from violence and abuse. When he uncovered a child
prostitution ring selling children to personnel at the US Naval base, Subic Bay,
he initiated a successful campaign to remove the bases and convert the
infrastructure into a commercial manufacturing zone. As many as a hundred
thousand Filipinos now work at the converted U.S. bases in Clark and Subic.

He began Preda Fair Trade, in 1975, a successful
poverty alleviation, manufacturing and export project that lifts the poor to a
life of dignity. He oversees twelve major projects at the Foundation including
environmental protection and tree planting. With a present professional staff of
83 the projects are expanding.

He has received several human rights awards and has been nominated three times
for the Nobel Peace Prize and other human rights awards. He has testified before
the US Congress, The Philippine Senate and is a well known speaker and
facilitator at numerous other international conferences. Along with being the
author of Passion and
Power an autobiography, he writes a weekly column in The Manila Times which is
published in other newspapers and on-line. He also writes poetry, songs and is a
media commentator on the issues of trafficking of women and children and human
rights violations. www.preda.org

Previous recipients of the Humanitarian Award and donations are Mary Donohue (Rose Project Founder), Sir Elton John, Christina Noble, Bono, Sister Stanislaus
Kennedy and Adi Roche, Father Peter Mc Verry and Paul Brady.