When the light shines again

It was a happy day for Joshua. He graduated from the Preda vocational training program and proudly held a student driver’s license and his graduation certificate while the camera clicked to record the moment and everyone there applauded. It was his day when the light shone for him.

He had completed and passed his driving test at the Preda Home for Boys and completed a course in shielded metal arc welding. He can apply for a job as a basic welder or driver when he gets his license. He was only seven months in the Preda program, and his life had dramatically changed in that time.

Joshua was once a child prisoner, locked in a small bare prison cell with graffiti on the walls, a hole in the floor for a toilet and what a dark dangerous smelly place it was. the dark dungeons of Dicken’s novels were the only comparison.

He became a fighter, a rebellious child prisoner. He opposed all authority, even the cell boss-man couldn’t control him so they beat and kicked him. the world for Joshua was a mean and dangerous place where his survival was threatened every day. they fought over the small food allowance of rice and expired cans of fish. He also fought off the bigger youth that tried to rape him. He kicked and gouged and defended himself.

the day came when he was saved from this hell- hole of misery. He was released from the unjust and unnecessary detention. His only so- called crime was he was homeless and broke curfew. His father died when he was 10 years old, and his stepfather beat him and cursed him. He ran away and took to the streets; there was no home, no acceptance, just rejection. Local officials locked him in a youth detention center where the Preda social workers found him bruised, angry and rebellious.

With a release order signed by a judge, he came to the Preda home for boys in the countryside that was without fences, without cells, just freedom and friendship. It was not an easy transition. His old survivalist ways dominated. He bullied others and fought for dominance as he believed that was what he was supposed to do in this world. He had learned on the streets and the jail cells that no one cares, no one helps, no one loves him.

that changed day by day as he realized that he was cared for, that he was respected, no one bullied him. He joined values formation sessions, education classes and slowly, he realized he had landed in a family that cared.

He was respected for the first time in his life and was free to choose to stay and to change and learn. He had emotional release therapy and screamed out his buried pain and hatred for the abuse he suffered. He joined the sports, the outings, games and picnics. Soon, he was taking vocational training. He was transforming. He tamed himself.

He is now a happy, intelligent mature young man, together with 20 classmates who are also