In 1996 Columban Sister Breda Noonan initiated a ministry to women in the southern part of the island of  Mindanao in the Philippines.   Over the years the ministry, which became known as 'Sabakan' has responded to various needs of women: awareness workshops, legal support, healing, counselling and the training of leaders in the community.

Sister Breda , pictured on the right with two of the younger members of Sabakan,  tells us about her ministry:

I will call her Perla. She was small - barely 4' 10", slight in stature, and in her late 20s. We had just met and were talking in a remote town, Dimataling, on the southern coast of Mindanao. She told me that she had been married to a Muslim - Dimataling is a very mixed Christian/Muslim community - but that he had left her with two small children. She had struggled to survive, earning a pittance weeding some local fields or taking in washing. Her home was a single-roomed shack standing on bamboo poles which tilted in a way that put the fear of God in me.

A few nights previously a Christian neighbour had come into the shack and raped her. Living alone with her two small kids with no family close by she must have seemed an easy target. He had not reckoned with the fight that was in this woman. The next day she took her tale to the local police and said she would file a case. This was 1996 and Perla was my introduction to women victims of violence in the Pagadian Diocese.

I had just returned to the Philippines after some time in England and, with the support of the bishop of Pagadian, had plans to initiate a ministry for women. In 1996 there was no trained staff in the locality and almost no awareness within the Church or wider community of the need for such a ministry. Since 1966, I had worked among the urban poor in this part of Mindanao, but in 1996 when I began to explore this ministry I was totally unaware of the extent and severity of violence against women.

I was to discover that Perla was very different from many of the other women so victimized. She was determined to tell her story and to file a case in the courts. I was to discover that most women victims of violence, whether from better off families or those with hardly anything to live on, usually felt so alone and so burdened with feelings of shame and guilt that their only response was one of silence. If their plight was known by the wider community, the community usually colluded in not breaking the silence.

Two experiences starkly revealed this to me. Early in 1997 a diocesan worker took me to visit a woman living in a tiny one-roomed shack who had been subject to continual beatings by her husband. It had been known by the wider community but they did not act, with tragic consequences. A few nights previous to our visit, their fifteen year old son could take no more and had killed his father with a knife.

Some months later I was sitting at a late night meeting with a judge and some members of a family who had just discovered that their father, whom they had known to be violent, had also committed incest with two of his daughters and had had two children by one of them. This man was a ‘respected’ member of the local town. A warrant was out for his arrest and the discussion that night was about how the arrest would take place. The judge present was the one who had signed the warrant. He was a friend of the family and had been a sponsor at the parents’ wedding. During a gap in the discussion the judge suddenly said to the two young men present; “I knew from ‘talks’ in the community that for the past five years your father was interfering with your sisters.” At that moment I glimpsed the long, long road that lay ahead in awakening the local communities and the parishes - let alone the legal system - to hear the story of abused women and to take action to protect them. How else would the violence stop?

In 1997 the ministry to women had become a Diocesan Ministry to Women and the staff had selected the name Sabakan. This translates as Womb. Over the years Sabakan has evolved different responses to the needs of women. Some community/parish awareness workshops, legal support, some healing and counselling, and the training of some leaders in the community. But in each response the staff of Sabakan have deliberately set out to offer a safe place, a place where the story of each woman can be shared, supported, cried over, acted on and, in time, healed and celebrated. In other words, made sacred; sacred because in this process the story of each one becomes intimately linked to the sacred story of Jesus and carries the Good News for today.

It all had to begin with the staff. Unless each staff member could appreciate his/her own story they would never truly give space to another’s story. The stories might be creatively portrayed in paint or drama. Many times the story would be told in tears and maybe anger but, through the holding and the valuing of the story in the group, the person would find the courage to go through the pain to discover the light and the joy of healing that was also within the story.

What has been the unfolding story of Perla? She decided to go ahead with the case against the man who raped her, so she needed legal advice and support. She needed someone to sit by her in the court as she tried to make sense of what was happening. She needed someone there to share her frustration and tears as time and again she would travel the three hours into Pagadian to find that the case had been postponed. She also needed to continually tell her story, not only of the violence but where she came from, her daily struggle to survive, and her hopes and dreams for her two small children. Being listened to has increased her sense of herself and added to her strength. However the reality remains that seven years on, even with the support of Sabakan, there is still no court decision. It is that difficult for a poor woman to get a case through the courts!

But Perla has changed. She has moved from her remote town to Pagadian and has found work that is more supportive of herself and her children. She is stronger and more vibrant than ever.

Sabakan owes so much to Perla. She was the first ‘client’ and she showed us what was needed to support a woman so caught in violence. She and the women who have followed her have spearheaded the way. The community is not as silent as it was. Many in the community direct women, victims of violence, our way. Each valiant woman who has come to us has entrusted us with her sacred story and so has inspired all that we, in Sabakan, do today.

Email:  msscph_alt@yahoo.com.ph