By Lenin Castillo

The anakngdesaparecidos.wordpress.com is the official blog site of members of the Samahan ng mga Anak ng Desaparecidos (SAD). In this site all articles, literary pieces and even art works (video, painting, photos, etc) created by children of disappeared will be posted here as well as position papers and statements of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance.

The blog will reflect the in-depth thoughts and feelings of a son, daughter, sister, brother or any younger relative of the victim of the disappeared. This will show how we, the children understand the disappearance of our fathers.

[The article below best describes what SAD is.  The article is an excerpt from “City of Lost Parents: The SAD Story” written by Celia L. Sevilla posted in anakngdesaparecidos.wordpress.com]

IN THE BEGINNING…

SAD or Samahan ng mga Anak ng mga Desaparecidos (Children of the Disappeared) was founded in 1990 by the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND). The Welfare and Rehabilitation Committee if FIND recognized that the children as well as the younger siblings of victims of involuntary disappearance needed special attention and rehabilitation. To ensure that their needs are adequately addressed, these children were organized into a group which was then included in the six lines of work of FIND. Thus, SAD was born.

The objective for founding SAD was to provide the children with much-needed rehabilitation. In its early years, the focus of SAD was the attainment of this objective. Rehabilitation sessions and family conferences were conducted to help the children cope with their parents’ disappearance.

AND THEN THERE WAS MIGHT…

Gradually, as SAD evolved, it began to serve another purpose. The group became a very potent medium in projecting the issue of involuntary disappearance to the general public. It has since become an effective arm of FIND in the organization’s campaign against involuntary disappearance both locally and internationally.

In 1993, FIND together with Amnesty International (AI) launched a campaign against political killings and enforced disappearances. SAD actively took part in this activity, touring four European countries (Belgium, United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland) to protest the killings and disappearances through stage plays.

[Next featured blog of the week: Carpe Diem by Darwin Mendiola.]

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