MANILA (Agenzia Fides): As many as 26.065 women from Asia were prevented and rescued from human trafficking in 2021 by Talitha Kum, a federation of Catholic religious sisters committed to combating and eradicating human trafficking.
“Prevention was the Asian networks’ priority. It was fostered through training and awareness-raising campaigns in schools, parishes, and local communities, targeting especially women, youth, religious, tribal communities, and migrant workers”, said Marknoll Sister Abby Avelino, director of Talitha Kum Asia.
She explained that human trafficking in Asia has been exacerbated by the current socio-economic situation. Many countries in face severe economic crises due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and political conflicts in places such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
“Crises like these increase the number of people who become vulnerable to trafficking, particularly women, girls, young people, migrants, and refugees. The predominant forms of domestic and international human trafficking are forced labour, forced marriage and sexual exploitation,” Sister Avelino said in a Talitha Kum report.
“As the economic problems become increasingly complicated, more vulnerable people get trapped in exploitation in order to survive. One area of entrapment is cyber-based trafficking and Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, “ she said.
Crises like these increase the number of people who become vulnerable to trafficking, particularly women, girls, young people, migrants, and refugees. The predominant forms of domestic and international human trafficking are forced labour, forced marriage and sexual exploitation
Sister Avelino
Talitha Kum Asia’s prevention campaigns have been moved online since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure continued information sharing on anti-trafficking. Its networks in Asia hosted monthly webinars on human trafficking to strengthen prevention, protection, capacity building, and networking, as well as collaboration, and advocacy. The impact of the programme has given greater visibility to Talitha Kum’s networks in Bangladesh and Vietnam, which were established in 2021.
“We have organised activities using the Sufficiency Economy Programme, helping women and young people in villages and mountainous areas to manage natural food resources, such as herbs and vegetables that can be found in the local forests. This programme has had a satisfying impact on the local community in supporting and promoting capacity building,” Sister Avelino notes.
“We launched the Talitha Kum Anti-Trafficking Youth Ambassadors programme in 2021 to engage more young people with the vision and mission of Talitha Kum. Young women and men, representing ten countries in Asia, were trained to be anti-trafficking youth ambassadors among their peers at the grassroots level,” she remarked.
Youth leaders developed their skills promoting Talitha Kum’s work at the grassroots in creative and innovative ways with the coordination of sisters in the networks.
The awareness of the issues of trafficking has grown as young people participated at various levels of Talitha Kum’s anti-human trafficking campaigns.
Talitha Kum is a Rome-based international network and was founded by the International Union of Superiors General. It has 3,521 members from 205 women religious congregations in 20 countries
Talitha Kum Asia partners with 65 Catholic organisations, 56 non-government organisations, 18 national organisations and 42 international government agencies. In 2021, the organisatinoi provided care and support to 3,972 victims of human trafficking and organised 3,909 trainings and workshops.
