Sisters active in anti-trafficking efforts

The Wisconsin Catholic Sisters campaign to raise awareness about the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking runs through May 2017. To alert people about prevalent trafficking activities which occur with summer tourism season, anti-trafficking messages will be posted on their Facebook page.

“Labor trafficking exists everywhere and sometimes goes undetected throughout supply chains that create many of the products being bought and sold all over the world,” says Sister of St. Agnes Jomarie Zielke, representing Wisconsin’s Leadership Conference of Women Religious. “Here in Wisconsin, we’re not immune to either labor or sex trafficking; victims are found most often in restaurants, fields and resorts.”

Resources available to educate individuals and groups

In addition to the ad campaign and Facebook page, the Catholic Sisters created a Wisconsin-focused human trafficking resource kit that includes contact information for several Wisconsin-based Catholic Sisters available to present to groups, downloadable hotline cards and recommended websites and videos (including how to order Holy Cross Sister Celine Goessl’s DVD, “A Light Piercing the Darkness of Human Trafficking”). The toolkit also provides access to the Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct; everyone making hotel or resort reservations should ask if the establishment supports “The Code.”

“We all can make a difference; we know that through multiple awareness campaigns happening nationwide, contacts made to the national hotline increased 24 percent in 2015 (over 2014),” says Sister Zielke. “Join us to continue raising awareness, educating, ending demand and freeing those enslaved.”

Reflect and pray about the crime of human trafficking

Download the School Sisters of Notre Dame – Shalom International Solidarity Reflection on Human Trafficking of Women and Girls. >HERE

‘Ending slavery is everyone's work’

U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking is a collaborative, faith-based national network that offers education, supports access to survivor services and engages in advocacy in an effort to eradicate modern-day slavery. Learn more at their website. >HERE