Presented by Sister Ann Teresa and Brother Des for CORI (NI) Belfast, Friday 25th April 2008

SECOND TALK 

This morning we mentioned the numbers of trafficked people there are in the UK.  Many of these will be enslaved within our Parish boundaries, and, as we gather for worship, 'The Body of Christ' in the person of each enslaved woman, will be experiencing rape, degradation and violence on an incredible scale.  Within a short time of their arrival in the UK they discover that there is no job for them to do, and that they are now the property of the person who has paid for them; they are beaten, raped and their families threatened, if they don't comply with their pimp's wishes.  On top of this, they are given a bill for the cost of their travel, for their accommodation, clothes and food, while many work 60-70 hour weeks!

We would now like you to see the work of the Medaille Trust through the eyes of one of the women in our Safe House and also through the eyes of one of the workers in a Safe House:

               "I am a Zambian girl by nationality and am in my late teens. I was trafficked from Zambia into the UK early January, 2007. I managed to escape from my trafficker around the end of February. I hated myself, the whole world and everyone in it, I thought I had nothing to live for; back home I lost my young sister, my mum and I never knew my dad. Life has been so difficult.

However I thank God for giving me the strength to hold on and for directing me to the right people. After my escape I came in contact with the Medaille Trust in March, 2007, who have accommodated, fed and provided me with some pocket money every week. A lot of things have changed in my life from the time I came to the Medaille Trust. I was so depressed that I attempted suicide I had no hope for tomorrow, my dreams were hopeless, I had no strength in me and I didn't care about anything all I wanted was to die and forget about all the suffering and pain I went through. I thank God because people at the Medaille Trust didn't give up on me, they showed me love and encouraged me in all the areas I needed help with. I have also been attending counselling, which has been so helpful.

I have made very good friends in the house and I have learnt a lot from them for example their cultures, food and now I can even speak a small amount of Thai and Nigerian languages. I have achieved a lot in a short time - I thought it was going to take years for me to feel like a young lady again. I have gained my confidence, I feel pretty again and am even wiser from the experience I have had in my life. The most important thing that has made me happy is being able to go back to school. I am studying Travel and Tourism at the local college, it gives me hope that there is a bright future for me and I can be what I have always wanted to be in life.

My entire special thanks to the manger of the house, the staff and mostly to every one who has made it possible to keep the charity going may God bless you all."   

THE WORK OF THE MEDAILLE TRUST, AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF ONE OF THE WORKERS:

"Working with The Medaille Trust has been an incredible journey so far, it has been filled with so many ups and downs as well as strong learning curves that I am surprised a year has passed already! I realised when the first woman came through our doors, that no amount of reading, research and preparation could have prepared us for the practicalities of working with women who have been trafficked for sexual purposes. There were so many other things to think about and in particular communicational barriers. Many a time over the past year it looks like I have been playing charades with a woman, when really we were just trying to communicate with each other.

One of the hardest experiences I have faced is when two of the women in the safe house attempted suicide, to see someone at such despair they felt that ending their life was a better option than living through the pain, was so difficult to face and know how to deal with. Both women got through that difficult time.  However, understandably, they still have ups and downs as they continue to rebuild their lives and self-esteem.

One of my best experiences was when one of the women mentioned above was accepted on a college course and 2 weeks later found out she had won her asylum claim appeal.  The joy on her face and the relief that her life was moving in a positive direction was moving and filled me with encouragement.

So many times over the past year my heart has bled for each and every woman that has come to our safe house. Nothing can prepare you for when a woman talks about her experiences.  You sit there and listen and can reassure her she's safe now but inside there is just pain and sadness - as well as anger towards the people that have done this and continue to get away with what they do. These women are treated like objects when they are so much more than that.

We become stronger as a team and a community each day and our knowledge continues to grow and develop. I feel blessed that I am part of the project and I am part of an incredible team of staff and women who are on a journey that I hope will grow and continue for many years.

What has inspired me the most over the past year is the women's strength and courage, these women have been through some of the most traumatic experiences imaginable, yet they can still smile and appreciate their life. Each and every woman is unique in their own way and I feel I have learnt so much from each and every one.

They are an inspiration to the world."

This is a little snapshot of the work of The Medaille Trust.  Our first meeting of Religious in the UK, in October 2005, has borne fruit.  This was the meeting where we all agreed to work together to help the victims of sex-trafficking in the UK - to pool what we could in terms of finance, personnel and houses.  So many Religious Congregations have and are contributing to the work of the Medaille Trust, and so what we have managed to achieve, is thanks to this collaboration.  We are experiencing that we can do so much together that we could never do alone.

OUR ATTEMPTS TO SET UP SAFE HOUSES FOR TRAFFICKED CHILDREN:

We have wanted to do something for trafficked children since we established The Medaille Trust, and we have left no stone unturned in order to do this.  A number of Religious Congregations who support us financially, have also wanted this to happen.  Some Congregations have offered houses to make this possible. 

We have had meetings with the Home Office, with Heads of Children's Services, initiated meetings with all the groups who are involved with children.  I have spoken to Eleanor Gaetan who compiles the TIP Report for the US Government .....

A recent UNICEF UK Report stated that the UK Government was in its infancy with regard to policy-making for trafficked children.  This report also stated that there was no Safe House for trafficked children in the UK and no model of good practice.

We have kept abreast with all that has been written about trafficked children in this country and we have done our utmost to put something in place.  But our efforts have come to nothing.

One Congregation of Sisters had offered us a beautiful house and they really share our vision for trafficked children.  They even left it empty for a year while all the negotiations were taking place.  We have come to wall here and we have had to say, that for now, it seems that we cannot help trafficked children in this country.

The Government does not want to have Safe Houses for children.  They want to place trafficked children with foster parents.  We wanted to work with 16-18 year olds who fall through the net, but there is little funding for these young people and we would not be able to afford to run a house for them.   We knew that the Government would want these young people to go to their home country before they were 18 and we knew that with the networks of religious congregations throughout the world, that we would be able to help them return home safely, and be able to set them up in such a way that they would not be so vulnerable to traffickers.

Whatever we set up has to be in line with the Government's vision in order to access sustainable funding, and despite a tremendous amount of effort, we can't do this work at this particular time.

We may be able to help the children of those women in our Safe Houses who have children back home.  That may be the way in which we help children.  We are beginning by offering to help one of the African women in our Safe House to move with her children to another African country.  We will use some of the money which has been donated specifically for children, for this purpose.

There are also other forms of slavery in this country e.g. Domestic Servitude and Labour Exploitation.  We are at present looking at these forms of slavery and seeing how we might be able to help.   But the bottom line is money!

We have seen a lot of the reality of trafficking and what The Medaille Trust is doing.  Now it might be good to look at some of the under-lying causes:

SOME OF THE CAUSES OF TRAFFICKING

A)  OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM

This enables one part of the world to be wealthy at the expense of two-thirds of the people on our planet.

1. People are so vulnerable to being exploited and betrayed because they live in extreme conditions of poverty; they take terrible risks to improve their own lives and those of their families.  Traffickers know this and they prey on this vulnerability.  They see these poor people as commodities...
2. The gap between the rich and the poor is fundamental to the problem of trafficking.

B) THE PREVALENCE OF WAR:

1. We spend so much more of the earth's resources on war than on life.
2. War destroys economies, destroys communities, destroys homes and breaks up families.  It is always women and children who suffer most and are therefore vulnerable to traffickers.
3. There are thousands of military bases throughout the world and there will be brothels attached to each on.   Most of the women in the brothels have been trafficked.  They won't have made a free choice about this.

C) A DISTORTED VIEW OF WOMEN

A number of people think that there are two kinds of women:

1. Those who are to be respected and cherished such as wives, sisters and daughters.
2. Those who can be used and abused, such as women in prostitution.

•  It is assumed that women CHOOSE to go into the sex industry; that they have made a career choice to become prostitutes.  It is believed that these women enjoy what they are doing.  This is simply not true. Desperate circumstances lead women into prostitution.
• Prostitution is based on a lie.  Women involved have to pretend that they want to be doing what they are doing. And those who are trafficked will be beaten if they do otherwise than live this pretence in front of punters.

THERE ARE NOT TWO KINDS OF WOMAN - ONLY ONE - WHO IS THE EQUAL OF MAN - AND MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE.   EVERY WOMAN AND GIRL NEEDS TO BE TREATED WITH RESPECT, AND NOT WITH ABUSE.

D) DEMAND FOR PROSTITUTED PEOPLE:

In the last 10 years, there has been an increase in the numbers of men paying for sex.  The internet and globalisation have played their part in this, as well as package holidays linked with sex tourism.  Many men see the paying for sexual services as a legitimate form of leisure and entertainment.  For these men, the increasing commoditization of sex and women, provides a context in which, not only is commercial sex normalised, but it is associated with entitlements:  with enough money you can buy whoever (whatever) you want.  As one man said: 'It's just like going to Tescos'!

This increasing DEMAND for prostituted people is a major challenge facing us.  The Minister, Vernon Coaker recently spoke of sex-trafficking as 'one of the vilest crimes that threaten society.'  He said that all other efforts in counter-trafficking will be futile of we don't tackle DEMAND.  He also said that it is 'very important that men take more responsibility for our society.'  Our Government is seriously looking at the Swedish solution, where women in prostitution are seen as victims and those who buy sex are criminalised.  We will probably follow in their footsteps.

But the issue of demand is more complex, and we need to do more than simply change the Law.  We need to change social attitudes and change our perceptions of prostitution and challenge the attitudes of many men.

There are a number of people in our society who have begun this debate already, including Ministers such as Vernon Coaker, Harriet Harman and Jackie Smith.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we Religious could give a more concerted lead in this matter of changing attitudes in society?  We would be doing in the context of the Twenty-First Century what our Founders did at the time of our beginnings.

Des is committed to doing all that he can to bring men together in order to begin to address this major issue.

We continue to have a sense of God with us in this work of helping some oppressed people to become free, and we do our best to continue to listen to the on-going call of God.  So many Religious Congregations have been so generous in sharing what they can with the Medaille Trust.  The image which often comes to mind is the sharing of the loaves and fishes.  Through this generosity and faith, God is feeding some of the multitude in our country who desperately need help.

While in Rome, the newly formed International Network of Religious Against Trafficking in Persons, wrote a Statement in the name of all Religious.  It might be good to finish by saying this together.