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Sheila Smith, rscj (Canada)
Whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, and disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than free and responsible persons" as "infamies" which "poison human society, debase their perpetrators" and constitute "a supreme dishonour to the Creator" (Gaudium et Spes, 27). Opening Hymn Leader: We gather in the presence of Compassion God whose dream it is for all daughters to be free and so we stand together knowing that we are the voice of God in our world as we declare:
R: Our determination to work in solidarity with one another within our own religious communities and in the countries in which we are located to address insistently at every level the abuse and sexual exploitation of women and children with particular attention to the trafficking of women which has become a lucrative multi-national business.
L: Drawing on our long tradition as educators we will continue to promote the education and formation of women within and outside our own organizations by committing personnel and financial resources to ensure the holistic development of women at every stage of life empowering them to develop an inner strength and appreciation of their God-given gifts to promote and enhance life.
R: As women committed to human rights we declare once more our solidarity with the poorest countries and restate our resolution to work for the cancellation of the International Debt.
L: As women opposed to the perpetuation of war and violence we express our commitment to the creation of a culture of peace and we call on heads of governments and multi-national companies to stop the sale and purchase of armaments.
R: As women concerned about the preservation of Mother Earth we will take action when and wherever possible to end the destructive behaviour that causes global warming and climate change and threatens all forms of life on our planet.
L: We pledge ourselves to implement these resolutions through a system of networking among ourselves and with other existing organizations with similar concerns within churches and in society.
All: Attentive to the cries that arise with one voice from many cultures we will respond as women disciples of Jesus Christ seeing the world with the eyes of the heart and with the compassion of a loving God.
- Declaration of Women Religious Leaders members of the International Union of Superiors General participating at the UISG Plenary held in Rome May 6-10, and ratified by the Assembly of Delegates on May 13, 2001. Voice 1 Leader: Let us open the eyes of our hearts to stories of the daughters of God’s people today who are broken, ruined, wounded and destroyed by human trafficking. Voices 2-5 Litany and Ritual
Leader: Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people far and wide in the land, she who is deceived, abused and enslaved in the textile factories. . (adapted from Jer. 8:19)
Response: Attentive to the cries that arise with one voice from many cultures we will respond as women disciples of Jesus Christ seeing the world with the eyes of the heart and with the compassion of a loving God.
A beautiful piece of fabric symbolizing the just labour of textile workers is place on the floor or small table in centre.
Leader: Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people far and wide in the land, she who is tricked, sold and enslaved in domestic slavery.
Response: Attentive to the cries that arise with one voice from many cultures we will respond as women disciples of Jesus Christ seeing the world with the eyes of the heart and with the compassion of a loving God.
A bowl of clean water symbolizing the freeing of those caught in domestic slavery is placed on the centre piece.
Leader: Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people far and wide in the land, she who is displaced, underpaid and enslaved in the coffee plantations.
Response: Attentive to the cries that arise with one voice from many cultures we will respond as women disciples of Jesus Christ seeing the world with the eyes of the heart and with the compassion of a loving God.
Fair trade coffee beans are placed on the centre piece symbolizing the farmers working locally for a fair wage in the freedom of their own culture and land.
Leader: Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people far and wide in the land, she who is exploited in the cocoa fields for the production of chocolate.
Response: Attentive to the cries that arise with one voice from many cultures we will respond as women disciples of Jesus Christ seeing the world with the eyes of the heart and with the compassion of a loving God.
Fair trade chocolate is placed on the centre piece symbolizing the end to child slavery.
Leader: Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people far and wide in the land, she who is trafficked, disgraced and enslaved in the sex trade.
Response: Attentive to the cries that arise with one voice from many cultures we will respond as women disciples of Jesus Christ seeing the world with the eyes of the heart and with the compassion of a loving God.
A rose is placed on the centre piece symbolizing respect the beauty of all earth’s daughters.
Time for reflection and sharing As each one shares, she places the picture she has brought with her of the woman/women on the centre piece.
Closing prayer: Prayer For An End To Trafficking O God, our words cannot express
what our minds can barely comprehend
and our hearts feel
when we hear of women and girls deceived
and transported to unknown places
for purposes of sexual exploitation and abuse
because of human greed and profit
at this time in our world.
Our hearts are saddened and our spirits angry
that their dignity and rights are being
transgressed through threats
deception and force.
We cry out against the degrading practice of
trafficking and pray for it to end.
Strengthen the fragile-spirited
and broken-hearted.
Make real your promises
to fill these our sisters with a love
that is tender and good
and send the exploiters away empty-handed.
Give us the wisdom and courage
to stand in solidarity with them
that we will find ways
to the freedom that is your gift to all of us.
-School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), Trafficking Reflection Booklet, Canadian Province, p.10. Closing Hymn Possible actions: - Become familiar with the complexity of the issue of human trafficking
- Sign the petition against child trafficking for cocoa production on www.savethechildren.ca
- Buy fair-trade coffee and chocolate products and ask your grocer to carry them
- Support your own local farmers
- Pray the Prayer For An End To Trafficking regularly
- Write a letter to your MP about your concerns around Canada’s involvement in the trafficking business
- Before next International Women’s Day, have a workshop or information session on Trafficking in Women and Children. The UISG kit includes a section on How to Organize a Workshop. The kit can be ordered through
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Ask the CRC-JPIC service to help.
Leader’s Guide Preparation before: Ask each participant to come with a photo, magazine or newspaper image of a woman or women who live in the extreme poverty created by corporate globalization. The same face of globalization that permits attitudes that allow human trafficking to exist. Gather the following symbols (or create your own) for the centre piece: a beautiful piece of fabric, a glass bowl or jug of water, fair trade coffee beans, fair trade chocolate, a rose or flowering plant. Arrange chairs in a circle around a low table or area of floor where a centre piece can be assembled during the course of the prayer. Music: “Voices that Challenge”, David Haas,found on Blest Are They; the best of David Hass volume 1 ; “Siyahamba”, Marty Haugen and Donna PeZa, found on We Come Dancing; “Song of Community”, Carolyn McDade, found on Rain Upon Dry Land; “Who Will Speak”, Marty Haugen, found on Agapé
Roles needed in the ritual: - Five readers
- Five symbol holders to place symbols at the centre piece at the appropriate time
Readings:
Voice 1 : Jeremiah 8: 18-23
My grief is incurable, my heart within me is faint.
Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people, far and wide in the land! Is the Lord no longer in Zion, is her King no longer in her midst? (Why do they provoke me with their idols, with their foreign nonentities?)
‘The harvest has passed, the summer is at an end, and yet we are not safe!”
I am broken by the ruin of the daughter of my people. I am disconsolate; horror has seized me.
Is their no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why grows not new flesh over the wound of the daughter of my people?
Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!
-translation from The New American Bible
Voice 2: Alima's Story
Alima is one of six children from a poor farming family in a small, isolated village in the Mopti region of Mali. She had spent most of her life working in the family farm, and enjoyed listening and playing music. At 17 she had to make money for her dowry (trousseau de marriage) and more money for food. Her parents agreed that she should go to Bamako and work as a domestic helper in the capital city. After two months in Bamako, she made enough money to buy a ticket to go to Ivory Coast, and then she and three of her friends left Bamako in search of well-paying jobs in Ivory Coast. The girls were taken to Sikasso and from there an intermediary wanted to take them to a plantation to work as a domestic worker for the owner of the plantation. They were promised CFA 10,000 a month.
When she and her friends arrived at the border poste of Niellé, the intermediary
abandoned them. The police then intercepted the girls at night in Ivory Coast and after two days in the country, they were sent back to Mali. On January 17 2002, Alima went through Horon So, a transit center, where she learned of the dangers of trafficking, received health services, and had some counseling with the social workers. Alima felt that she wanted to go home to her village. The Director of Horon So and some officials accompanied her back to her village and spoke with her parents, about the dangers of child trafficking.
-from www.savethechildrencanada.ca
Voice 3:
Few Canadians are aware that cocoa, the essential raw material in the production of chocolate, is being harvested by children.
Thousands of children are working on coca farms under dangerous and exploitative condition
Many children have been lured and trafficked from Mali to work long and hard hours on cocoa farms in The Ivory Coast. Few receive little or any money for their labour.
-from www.savethechildrencanada.ca
Voice 4:
You can’t use my real name. Or even the name they gave me in China. I don’t even know what my name should be. I am not the same person who left this village two years ago. My body came back but my soul is somewhere else.
No one recognizes me anymore and everyone who comes to see me…I think they come to stare at me because I am dirty now. I am filthy inside and my soul is empty. I don’t know if I can live this way. My mother comes to my room and says ‘Lena, you were such a friendly person. I miss you the way you were’. And I say, ‘Mama, I am different. Something died in me. I think it was happiness’.
I never thought this would happen to me. I was sixteen when they came to the village. They looked very nice and offered jobs to the girls here in China as cooks. The program looked very good. Three months of cooking school with all expenses paid. Then guaranteed work for one year in an expensive Chinese hotel. Nine other girls and I signed their contracts. They didn’t give us time to read them or take them to our parents. I thought our parents would have to sign because we were still in school but they said it was no problem. They were in a hurry and we signed their papers before all the places were gone.
We were so excited when we got our tickets and visas to China and the nice people who came to the village escorted us to the plane. Our families thought we would make good money and be able to help at home. But then, everything was different. Our escorts on the flight treated us like we were criminals. In China they burned our passports. When Masha tried to fight them, they beat her and raped her in front of us. There was only a whore house. The first day in China they took us to a morgue to show us the bodies of two girls who had jumped out of the window to try and get away. They told us there was no way out until we had worked as prostitutes long enough to pay back our debts for tickets and expenses. But then they kept all the money.
I am home because our brothel was raided by police six months later and I was deported. You might think I am lucky but I am not. Someday they will come back for me and if I do not go, they will kill me and maybe my family.
- from UISG Kit on Trafficking in Women and Children, p.3
Voice 5:
CHILD TRAFFICKING IN CANADA?
IT HAPPENS HERE...
The problem of trafficking is also right in Canada. A recent study conducted by the Solicitor General of Canada concludes that the impact of migrant trafficking in Canada is estimated at between $120 million to $400 million per year and accounts for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving in Canada each year illegally.
Children are trafficked between provinces and throughout North America for:
• sexual exploitation
• cheap labour
• domestic labour
• drugs, smuggling
-from www.savethechildrencanada.ca
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