Trafficking

Along Midwestern highways and interstates, with their hundreds of truck stops and rest stops, hubs for sex trafficking thrive. Sisters throughout the region are educating people to recognize the signs of victimization and are helping survivors recover.

The nuns and youth are trained to combat human trafficking, child marriage, and forced marriage.

The religious sisters who operate Talitha Kum Zambia assist trafficking victims like Angela, who responded to an ad for a teaching job in Thailand and was instead held captive and coerced into scamming people online.

Through my internship with the Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph Social Service Society, I have met women and children whose lives are marked by resilience, strength and a quiet courage that I admire deeply.

Twelve women religious congregations in Sri Lanka have come together to address human trafficking, unsafe migration and exploitation of women and children in the island nation.

"New challenges in preventing and combating human trafficking affecting children have emerged," particularly as traffickers are using the Internet "to advertise and sell children online for sexual exploitation and to distribute child sexual abuse material," said Maryknoll Sister Abby Avelino, international coordinator for the international network, Talitha Kum.

To combat human trafficking in Vietnam, Catholic sisters support survivors and act to protect vulnerable people by establishing avenues to employment and sustainable livelihoods.

Dawn's Place is a yearlong program, but that is just the very start of the journey survivors are on, says Sr. Meaghan Patterson, executive director.