On October 1st, the 23rd anniversary of the canonization of St. Josephine Bakhita, the Sacred Heart Province launched its response to an emerging poverty – human trafficking. It has become so rampant and pervasive locally and globally that the advocates against human trafficking including Pope Francis himself made our very own St. Josephine Bakhita – a victim of human trafficking in her childhood, as its intercessor and Patroness.
The Sisters gathered as a Province via zoom for a webinar on Protecting Communities: Perspectives on Human Trafficking and Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) by Mr. Andy Alegre of International Justice Mission-Philippines whose network is committed to seek justice for children in trafficked online exploitation. He gave us a background on the situation of human trafficking that reaches 784,000 global slavery index in 2018 and 10 million migration prevalence with 1 million Filipinos leaving the country annually. In 2021 there were 2.3 million children in forced labor globally. The Philippines identified and rescued 1,802 OSEC victims in 2022. In response, the government has allotted budget for awareness raising campaign, hotline assistance and Department of Labor assistance to labor violation contracts abroad and legislated laws against human trafficking. With effective criminal justice system, prevalence of human trafficking will be reduced. He enjoined us that as communities of faith, we can create awareness, participate in prevention, bring healing and restoration to OSEC survivors. He invited us to join Freedom Sunday Campaign to stand up for people who are oppressed from October 1 to December 17 or beyond. He also urged us to join in the core group of Talitha Kum-Philippines, a network of UISG Talitha Kum in Rome. There was an open forum after the talk.
In response to these challenges, some communities will register to join the Freedom Sunday. Sr. Mercedes Castro will represent our congregation in Talitha Kum-Philippines. Awareness raising campaign against human trafficking will be posted monthly in our social media accounts starting February 8, 2024. Our Sisters who are social workers are designing survey tools to gather information around our communities on migration and human trafficking.
With these initiatives, we hope to become more familiar in engaging ourselves in this ministry through education and prevention of human trafficking cases where we are. May St. Josephine Bakhita inspire and guide us in carrying out this ministry to the most in need.
