The February/March issue of the Newsletter from our colleagues at Contre La Traite des Êtres Humains focuses on concerns for minors during the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic.  The lead feature encompasses minors living in isolation and the psychological impacts of no social interactions. The lead feature also references minors living on the streets in high-risk situations, unable to access shelter, food, sanitation. Their plight highlights their vulnerability to human trafficking and exploitation, as well as heightened risks for their own health and safety.   

There is a positive note on how to continue the interactive collaborations post COVID-19 and the value of efficient means of communications virtually, borne out of necessity during the Pandemic.

Of particular interest is the information on the Hors la Rue Association, which aims to support foreign minors at risk towards Common Law, in particular minors who are victims of Human Trafficking.

As you scroll down the Newsletter, you will find a series of features covering a vast array of information on themes such as ‘’Keeping up with Victims of Sexual Exploitation in the Face of the Corona Virus’’ right through to a feature entitled ‘’A Look at Human Trafficking in the World,’’ with contributions from Maria Grazia Giammarinaro,
United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

The Newsletter is available at: http://www.contrelatraite.org/corona-mineurs-danger

As a practical theologian, Patricia moves into the world of the imagination as she reflects upon leadership in today’s global community in the light of God’s word.

Working from the dimension of a globalized connected world, Patricia brings us on a journey where we reflect on a fundamental question ‘Who are we as women Religious in today’s world?’’ To help in this reflection, Patricia suggests the following 6 actions or steps.

1. Widen the tent of our hearts;

2. Be present at the borderlands;

3. Embrace vulnerability;

4. Celebrate our luxurious cultural diversity;

5. Engage in web-watching and web-weaving;

6. Listen to the long notes.

For more, please find the UISG Bulletin 171, 2020, where you will find Patricia’s reflection on pp. 24, in addition to a number of other valuable features.

http://www.internationalunionsuperiorsgeneral.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BOLLETTINO_171_ENG.pdf

      For more on the CATW: www.catwinternational.org

Surprising as unplanned kisses, all you haven’t deserved
of days and solitude, your body’s immoderate good health
that lets you work in many kinds of weather.  Praise

talk with just about anyone.  And quiet intervals, books
that are your food and your hunger; nightfall and walks
before sleep.  Praising these for practice, perhaps

you will come at last to praise grief and the wrongs
you never intended.  At the end there may be no answers
and only a few very simple questions: did I love,

finish my task in the world?  Learn at least one

of the many names of God? 

At the intersections,

the boundaries where one life began and another
ended, the jumping-off places between fear and
possibility, at the ragged edges of pain,

did I catch the smallest glimpse of the holy?

                                                                                          ~ Jeanne Lohmann

by Maryann Mueller for US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking, April 2020.

On April 22 people around the world will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day to demonstrate their support for protecting our environment.  But what does protecting our environment have to do with human trafficking? 

According to the Office of United States Foreign Disaster Assistance, the total environmental disasters reported each year has been steadily increasing in recent decades, from 78 in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, to 409 in 2019.¹  The United Nations Environment program asserts that human trafficking increases by twenty to thirty percent as people are displaced during natural disasters.²

Human trafficking is always an exploitation of vulnerability and those displaced in an instant due to a storm, tsunami, flood etc. are among the most vulnerable populations.  The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) warns of significant increases for human trafficking especially among women and children as families are separated and displaced during natural disasters.³   

Meanwhile, the United States Government Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons finds that labor trafficking and the exploitation of natural resources appears “even more likely when the yield is obtained or produced in illegal, unregulated, or environmentally harmful ways and in areas where monitoring and legal enforcement are weak.”⁴

Full Reflection :   https://www.sistersagainsttrafficking.org/resources/prayer-resources/monthly-reflection/

Now is the time to encourage all the young people you know to prepare short films (3 and a half minutes to a maximum of four minutes duration) on any aspects of anti-human trafficking awareness-raising.

They can upload their entries to the RENATE events site (www.renateevents.net )as follows and in addition to achieving a lasting media presence which will impact positively on Human Trafficking awareness-raising , entrants are in with the possibility of winning a cash prize. All winning films will be screened at the RENATE film festival which will be held at the BAFTA and Royal Society of Arts Centre in London. .

The new RENATE Events website went live on Tuesday, 14 April 2020 and you can view the website at:

https://www.renateevents.net

https://www.renateevents.net/film-competition

L to R: Sr. Marie Josephine Fenando & Sr. Magdalena Eichenger,  RENATE Working Board meeting, Vilnius, November, 2019

This week’s news about RENATE members’ work at grassroots level, comes from Sr. Marie Josephine Fenando, OLCGS, based in Belgium.  Marie Josephine is a RENATE member working with SAWA, an organisation with a mission in in Brussels, Liege and Namur.

‘’Most of the work is in support of women and girls who have been trafficked from Africa and are now in prostitution and finding it difficult to break the chains of dependency.

As a result of our work, the girls are now able to stand on their own two feet. They look very happy healthy, are smiling and earning their living. When we first met them they were so frightened even to look at us. Most of them came to us crying, tired and sad.

In the beginning, they could not tell us the truth. They were sick and disappointed. As a result of their abuse, they have had to go through medical treatments. What is particularly challenging is the fact that even though they manage to escape from their traffickers, because of the cultural obligations,  they must continue to send money to their family despite no longer having any money to hand. They have lots of debts which must be honoured.

SAWA helps the girls in lots of ways. Where possible, SAWA takes the responsibility to pay the debts and also to send money to a girl’s family until the girls can find gainful employment. SAWA provides shelter, food, clothing, counselling, pocket money, even the monthly bus ticket. Sometimes they don’t come to live in our shelter house but even so, we help them. SAWA takes care of their health & pays medical expenses. In many instances, we have to find ways to solve alcohol and drug problems. Counselling alone does not sufficiently help them, we need to always keep them occupied.

SAWA helps the girls in Belgium to get their residence cards. Once they have a residence card, the girls  can go to language classes or skill training classes.

Some girls have undertaken academic studies, they have education qualifications but they cannot work in Belgium, thus they have to get their certificate to legalize their status. For that, they must go through a training period. Meanwhile, they have to register in the city hall. (C P A S) In Belgium, CPAS then provides them with a monthly allowance until they find a job. While attending training and classes, the girls do some part-time work to earn a little money.

Today some of our girls are doing very well. For example: two of them are running a restaurant; others are hairdressers, waitresses, room-cleaners in hotels, house cleaners, cashiers in shops, secretarial work, running small business (buying & selling), baby sitters, caretakers of elderly  people, nursery teachers and doing secretarial work in offices. For those who want to start their own small businesses, SAWA is there to support them.

These days SAWA needs more accommodation for girls. One of our shelter houses is not yet finished due to a financial problem. But nonetheless, we are doing well. We give first priority to our girls. Today we work as one family with our team. We are very proud of them. We are always ready to do what we can for them.

I hope you got some insights into our work’’.

Marie Josephine from Belgium.