Daughters of Charity international effort to counter human trafficking

On January 9-11 twelve Daughters of Charity from  Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and the 5 Provinces of the USA met in Mill Hill, London to continue our discussions on human trafficking, update each other on our activities since our last meeting and plan for future activities in our various provinces.

After a warm welcome by Sister Maria Raw, Provincial of the British Province, we received input from the founder of the Medaille Trust, Sister Ann-Teresa and Elaine Hill, manager of the Trust’s Safe Houses. They explained how the Trust came into being and what services the Safe Houses are able to provide for women who have been trafficked. The information they provided was both inspirational and practical. They emphasized both their learnings from their experience and the pitfalls to be avoided in beginning a new project with the hope of maintaining it into the future.

Ms. Ivonne Van de Kar, co-coordinator of the Dutch Foundation of Religious against Trafficking in Women spoke to us about the large group of Religious in the Netherlands who have organized a network on both the national and international level that makes information available for awareness raising and educational programs targeted for various groups such as border patrol officers, policemen, schools, emergency room staffs, etc.  Through this network, help can be sought for women in various circumstances who need specific expertise and assistance as they seek to become reintegrated into society.

A third input was provided by Louise Lawson from the Refugee Legal Center in London. She provided us with information concerning the legal services available and explained the difficulties that women who are trafficked encounter as they try to navigate the legal system.

All this input enriched our own experiences and provided us much food for thought and reflection. We concluded our meeting with a sharing session during which we offered suggestions of possible next steps in our own provinces and a renewed hope that networking among the Sisters within provinces as well as internationally will be strengthen. Attention was given to the need to address root causes so that preventive measures can be implemented even as we seek to help those who have become victims of this most despicable form of slavery.
Because this is a problem that affects every country in the world, we were encouraged to know that many provinces had Human Trafficking on the agenda of their Provincial Assemblies and we are hopeful that it will also be part of the discussions at the General Assembly in May-June, 2009.