27 June 2008

The Italian Experience of Women Religious in Counter Trafficking, June 27, 2008

Mother Viviana Ballarin, OP
President
Italian Union of Major Superiors (USMI)

I am grateful for the invitation to share with you what USMI - which stands for Unione Superiore Maggiori d'Italia – or the Italian Conference of Women Religious – is doing at the national and international level to coordinate and network the ministry of many religious sisters in combatting modern-day slavery.

I will begin by giving you some context.

USMI is a body made up of 627 Women Congregations, with roughly 90,000 members, working in different fields in Italy and abroad. Among our offices is a special section dealing with immigrant women who have become victims of human trafficking.

USMI’S Counter-Trafficking Office –has been in operation for 8 years under the capable and loving hand of Sr. Eugenia Bonetti. She was the organizer and visionary of the Trafficking Training Seminar which was held at this convent last October, and from which today we will be distributing Proceedings. No doubt, she is not a stranger to most of you.

Religious life, faithful to its mandate coming from the Gospel imperatives and from the specific charism of our congregations has a unique and prophetic role to play. This role can be achieved only if we join together to respond positively in the fight against the exploitation of human beings -- mainly women and children -- caught up in the international web of traffickers.

USMI has supoprted the work of hundreds of sisters in Italy to help young victims regain their lost freedom, dignity and self-esteem, and to recover the value of their lives, cultures, traditions, faith and womanhood -- which have been abused and too often destroyed.

So how did USMI get involved?

In the early eighties, thousands of foreign women came to Europe in search of work and better living conditions. Because they were often illegal immigrants, poor and vulnerable, they soon fell prey to criminal organizations in the paid sex industry. Italy was not exempt from this phenomenon; in fact, very soon it became one of the countries of transit and of destination for thousands of women.

In the nineties, the phenomenon of street prostitution assumed a visible scale that has been constantly on the increase. At present, an estimated 50 to 70 thousand women are living and working on the streets of our cities and countrysides. These women come from Africa (primarily Nigeria), Latin America and Eastern Europe. Between 30-40% of these women are minors -- as young as 14.

Religious Congregations, together with Diocesan Caritas and voluntary groups, were among the first to read this new sign of the time and to offer women alternative solutions to a life on the streets. Almost immediately, many Religious Congregations opened their convents to young victims who had rebelled against their exploiters. The sisters offered them sanctuary, where they could begin a new life – a life worthy of human beings, created in the image of God.

The commitment of Italian women religious has increased over the past years, along with the commitment of civil society and other institutions.

In 2000, USMI saw the need to create an ad hoc Counter-Trafficking Office to coordinate the efforts of the many religious working together to face the challenge of a this modern-day slavery.

At present in Italy, 250 sisters - belonging to 70 congregations - work in 110 projects, often in collaboration with Caritas, other public or private bodies, volunteers and associations, while maintaining their identity as consacrated women for a specific mission..

Several hundred victims, from various countries, are in our shelters at this very moment, being assisted by loving and devoted sisters who walk with them as they rebuild their broken lives – assisting pastorally, economically, logistically, legally and in any other way they can.

Thus this service becomes the expression of a new “fantasia della carità” as Pope John Paul II used to say – or a new “creativity of charity," which is also "prophetic intuition", and the fruit of a new "feminine genius" of love, compassion and mercy.

This anti-trafficking mission is carried out by the sisters in the following areas:

• Out-reach Units which serve as a first contact with the victims on the streets;

• Drop-in Centres to identify the problems of women in search of assistance;

• Safe Communities or Shelters for programmes of social reintegration ;

• Restoring Legal Status byassisting victims in the acquisition of documents;

• Professional/Vocational Preparation through language and job training;

• Psychological and Spiritual Assistance to help victims in rediscovering their cultural roots and faith, regaining their self-respect and confidence, and above all, assisting them in healing the deep wounds of their experience .

As religious sisters, our greatest strength and key to success in this ministry is to join our efforts in network. Traffickers are professional networkers – we must be too.

We are fully aware that, even though much has already been achieved in this field, there is so much more that needs to be done. For example, we would like to see our religious brothers get more involved in this battle –speaking out about the evils of trafficking from their pulpits – form and inform young people in schools and in parishes about respect of human life and dignity but also working pastorally with clients to safeguard the unity of the families.

With millions of trafficking victims around the world, we will continue to work with inspired commitment and devotion until all the invisible chains of modern-day slavery are broken.

To that end, in this very convent, we organized an international anti-trafficking Training Seminar last October with the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, which brought together 33 nuns from 26 different countries of origin, transit and destination so that they might exchange best practices and create a network with a common strategic policy dealing with prevention, protection and prosecution.

We are here today to celebrate that achievement, and to take home the Proceedings of that important October meeting – which gave birth to INRATIP, the International Network of Religious Against Trafficking in Persons. INRATIP is currently in conversation with UISG – and others – about bringing even more actors under the same umbrella so that a highly-functioning and viable international anti-trafficking network comes into being and thrives. The millions of trafficking victims worldwide deserve it – and desperately need it.

Our greatest desire is for women religious to become more aware of their great prophetic role in building a new world where women are respected and appreciated for who and what they are: “Created in the image of God …and not treated like slaves.”

Thank you.