Grace was a victim of human trafficking. She managed to escape her traffickers in Dubai and sought help at a local church. There she came into contact with the Sisters of Talitha Kum
SISTER ABBY AVELINO
Coordinator of Talitha Kum International
The sisters met her at the airport. So we accompanied her during her process: The traumatized, the psychological and physical. So until she recovered, sister accompanied her in many ways. And then later on, we gave her an alternative, a training program that she can also empower what she needs… And she says: “I want to be a chef”. So we gave her a program just simple baking, and now she is recovered and she's doing her cooking in the street. And now she's granted a scholarship to become a nutritionist.
Talitha Kum is an international organization that rescues women and children in vulnerable situations. The mafias make economic profit by taking advantage of their low social conditions. They try to exploit them sexually, through labor or even through the sale of organs.
SISTER ABBY AVELINO
Coordinator of the Talitha Kum International
So sometimes they get promised: “ oh, you're going to work in a restaurant” or “you're going to work in the paper industry”, but they ended up being working in we call it the bar or sometimes the night workers. So this is they've been trafficked to the traffickers. They, they give promises a good job, but they ended up in doing different things. So and this is a situation, and some of the women, of course, traffickers as traffickers, they believe what they promise.
39,081 is the total number of victims who have been reclaimed by the Catholic Sisters who run this organization and who, after being with them, have been reintegrated back into society.
SISTER ABBY AVELINO
Coordinator of the Talitha Kum International
We care for human dignity. The dignity is we care for. So this is my faith, and this is the is the response to the calling of most of the sisters, especially this is our network. We cannot tolerate anymore that being a women or children, being sold or being slave. So what we're doing is really to promote the dignity of people, of women. So as a women of faith and grounded the gospel. This is how we accompany the women, because we promote a dignity, we promote a human being. We don't want any more exploitation. We value the life.
The expression Talitha Kum defines the identity of this protection network. Derived from the Bible, the Sisters encourage these women and children to stand up courageously, promoting their dignity again.
JH
