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It is always so encouraging to receive updates from members of the Renate Network, and this week Sister Patricia Mulhall wrote to our Comms team with a wonderful update from her work over the last few months.
Sr Patricia and Sr Marie Power regularly volunteer at Bakhita House in London, which is a safe house for ‘trafficked women’. A lot of work is done among these women to enable them to learn English if it is not their first language and also to have the basic skills in literacy and computers. They are helped to write letters, CVs and other paperwork which will enable them to move on to independent lives.
https://www.caritaswestminster.org.uk/bakhita-house.php
Last year the sisters hosted a series of education and awareness sessions, and Sr Patricia writes,
“ We invited key speakers to some of the sessions: for example,
Sr Miriam Beike (Good Shepherd Sister working at the UN in Geneva) gave the input on Labour Trafficking;
Mr Kevin Hyland (the first independent commissioner for Modern Slavery in the UK) spoke about the difficulties in getting prosecutions;
Karen Anstiss (Manager of Bakhita House) spoke of her experience working with the women, including some of their horrific experiences;
Sr Imelda Poole did a presentation on ‘Empowering Young People to get involved in work of anti-trafficking.’
After the sessions, we provided the group with a list of Resources, NGO Websites, Campaigning organisations so that they could do their own ‘follow up’”
TRAC_UK is a group working on the awareness and campaigning against trafficking in which sisters from 15 difference congregations have participated. These meetings currently take place on zoom with a focus on sharing of information from one another, and the hope that more work will be done later in 2022.
Sr Patricia also writes “Marie and I are invited (as RENATE reps) to the launch of Anna Rowlands book at St Paul’s Cathedral, on Wednesday 9 Feb ‘Towards a Politics of Communion’”.
We look forward to hearing more about this event!