Anti-Trafficking Coalition of LCWR Boston Unit

Yesterday I was at a meeting of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious Region I, Boston Unit Anti-Trafficking Coalition. Yes! The name is a mouthful! But during the past year I have had the privilege of helping this group with pr and communications. It’s a group of sisters from various congregations in the Boston area who are working to raise awareness of the crime of human trafficking. The group represents sixteen Congregations of sisters and over a thousand women religious in the greater Boston area.

I’ll spare you the details of how this coalition evolved but we have offered two symposia for sisters, associates, and others in the Boston area who are concerned about this issue. We hoped that we’d draw 50 participants for the first symposium. We had to cut off registration at 200 because we were running out of space! The same thing happened with the second symposium. One thing this taught us is that there is wide-spread concern about this issue and a deep desire on the part of people of all ages to act on behalf of victims of human trafficking.

Trafficking is modern-day slavery. Human trafficking involves the sale of persons and is becoming as common as the sale of illegal drugs and weapons. The U.S. government estimates that criminals are making $9.5 billion a year from this industry.

Human Trafficking violates basic human dignity and as women of the church rooted in the Gospel of Jesus, we can’t sit by knowing that human trafficking happens right in our own neighborhoods. We are aware that our efforts are a small part of many other things going on in the Boston area and we continue to network with others in the area who are committed to putting an end to this horrible crime.

Here are just a few websites where you can learn more:
Stop Human Trafficking Newsletter:
http://homepage.mac.com/srjeanschafersds/stoptraffic/index.html

serves as a forum for exchange among religious congregations and their collaborating organizations.
A web resource for combating human trafficking:

http://www.humantrafficking.org/
provides worldwide information and updates on human trafficking.
Not for Sale Campaign:

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

unites individuals, musicians, artists, people of faith, businesses, schools, and sports teams to stop human trafficking. The site provides course outlines, how to run anti-trafficking groups.

Shared Hope: http://www.sharedhope.org/

leads a worldwide effort to eradicate sexual slavery...one life at a time.

Rescue and Restore Campaign:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/
seeks to rescue and restore victims of human trafficking.

What we can do? http://www.freetheslaves.net/

Every person has a role to play in ending slavery. Free the Slaves educates, motivates, activates - helping people discover their unique role in this great endeavor.