Once upon a time, and not so very long ago, it was common for young people who were asked what they wanted to do with their lives to say they wanted to make a difference, to help others. Recently, that answer seemed to get submerged in a tide of cynicism, and you were more likely to hear that they did not care what they did, as long as they made loads of money, writes Breda O'Brien.
Yet the urge to help others did not so much go away as become less visible. All around the country, young people volunteer and help out, and get precious little recognition for it.
Serve is one such voluntary organisation. It was set up in 2003, inspired by the Irish Redemptorists. This year, 57 young people from all over Ireland will travel to the Philippines, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Brazil. The volunteers do not set up fresh initiatives, but work in partnership with existing projects alongside local people. They live with families, which might include sleeping on the ground or eating unfamiliar food. Some volunteers work abroad for four to eight weeks, and that ends their formal involvement, although it would be impossible not to be changed by such an experience. Others decide to become involved in lobbying for change when they get home in a sister organisation called Just Cause. They attempt to raise awareness of links between what happens in Ireland and what happens abroad. To give just one example, when children are drawn into sex clubs in the Philippines and Thailand and abused, some of the tourists who exploit them are Irish. In a similar way, many of our so-called lap-dancing clubs, now widely recognised as gateways to prostitution, have Asian women working there. In another example, we routinely buy products from the developing world without ever asking ourselves whether workers received a fair wage for their work, or whether children were being used as slave labour.
When the Serve group heard that the Preda-Akbay Youth theatre from the Philippines was coming to Ireland, they were delighted to host them.
Nothing raises awareness as powerfully as first-hand testimony, and in their production The Truth Behind the Masks, the Filipino young people draw on their own experience of being powerless and exploited. The production explores the abuse and destruction of the local environment by foreign multinationals, and the sex tourism that results from the need to survive in a corrupt regime. No one would describe it as light entertainment. Serve say that no one younger than 15 should attend. Yet although it is harrowing, ultimately it is an inspiring story of survival and renewal.
Preda was set up by Fr Shay Cullen in 1974, along with Alex and Merle Hermoso. As a Columban missionary fresh from the seminary in 1969, he could not believe his eyes when he saw young children being offered for sale to personnel from the massive local US military naval base. He became determined to end this exploitation. Since that time, Preda has become an internationally recognised foe of sex tourism, and has secured the convictions of several foreign men for paedophile offences.
None of this has happened easily, and Fr Shay and other workers have experienced both smear campaigns and threats of violence on many occasions. Preda also works with imprisoned children. It is deeply disturbing to view some of the photos on their website (www.preda.org) which show children as young as five sharing cells with adults in overcrowded, squalid prisons. It would be tempting to despair, but Preda shows that despair is an unaffordable luxury.
In fact, some of the young people are extraordinarily strong and resilient, not in spite of, but perhaps because of their experiences. Many of them go on to want to help others.
There is a prime example of that at the moment in the Barretstown Gang Camp in Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare, which is one of the venues hosting a performance on July 2nd. (There are other performances in Clonard in Belfast on June 27th, in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, on June 29th, and in Douglas GAA Hall, Cork, on June 30th.) Barretstown is also a place that is full of life and hope, despite the fact that all the participants in the 10-day residential camps are battling serious illnesses such as cancer.
The idea behind Barretstown is that children who are very ill are still children, and deserve a chance to have some "serious fun" and make friends.
It is not all just fun and games, because it is based on a carefully planned programme called therapeutic recreation, which often literally gives the children a new lease of life. At the moment, three of the volunteers are from the Philippines. So-called Fil-Am children, they were abandoned by their American fathers and raised in poverty by their mothers. Despite experiencing massive disadvantage, these young people have succeeded in overcoming adversity through their own efforts and with the help of Preda in accessing education. Now they are committed to helping others, including in Barretstown, as a "cara" or friend to the children there. Incidentally, Barretstown has an open day the day after the Preda performance, July 3rd.
The open day is free, but it is essential to book beforehand. There will be tours of the facilities, a chance to try out some of the activities, and a bouncy castle, face painting, games and refreshments.
Understandably, when we think of children facing enormous challenges, we tend to react with pity. Yet as Fr Shay pointed out to me, in Ireland suicide is tragically common, but he has never encountered anyone who died by suicide among the young people he works with in the Philippines.
Similarly, Terry Dignam of Barretstown commented that the resilience and courage of seriously ill children often far outweighs that of adults.
Perhaps in the allegedly developed west, we look in all the wrong places for solutions to suffering, and therefore rarely develop the qualities of courage and resourcefulness that these children demonstrate in abundance.
Just as the people in Serve discover, the "help" that is given is far from one-way.
For tickets for Preda-Akbay Youth Theatre at any of the venues, contact Chris O'Donoghue on 086-0704761 or chris@serve.ie. To book for Barretstown Open Day on July 3rd, call 045-864115.