Not a Box of Chocolates!

The UN Gift Box campaign underway in Ireland for the month of March, featured in the 4^th of March 2017 edition of The Tablet, as follows:
‘’Lent is traditionally a time of fasting and abstinence when some people give up chocolates and sweets. The people of Drogheda in Ireland may therefore have been surprised to see a giant chocolate box outside St Peter’s Church on Ash Wednesday. The Gift Box is an initiative of the Loreto Sisters and APT (Act to Prevent Trafficking), a coalition of Religious orders campaigning against human trafficking.
This is the first time the walk-in piece of public art, symbolising the way traffickers entice their victims with false promises, has hit the streets of lreland, according to Sr Elizabeth Byrne IBVM. She explained to The Tablet that the month-long awareness-raising tour by the Gift Box is based on an initiative first launched by Stop t-he Traffik (UK) at the Olympics in 2O12. The Irish scheme has the support of No MoreTraffik (Northern Ireland), the Department of Justice and Equality (Republic of Ireland) and the Garda Anti-Human Trafficking Unit. There have been concerns in Ireland over an increase in the number of suspected victims of sex trafficking and forced labour, forced criminal activity, and forced begging, Sr Elizabeth explained. The Gift Box aims to highlight and inform the public about the issue of trafficking and show how Religious orders are helping fight this modern form of slavery.’’   The Tablet, 4 March, 2017. NOTEBOOK Feature.
 Prepared by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications Person.