Stop Trafficking ! June 2014

Awareness : 

• The International Labor Organization reports on the billions in illegal profits from millions of victims of forced labor.
• Online advertising is facilitating sexual exploitation in the US and the world.

Advocacy   : 

• Legislation to Prevent Fraudulent Overseas Labor Recruituing
• Legislation to Protect Youth from Sexual Exploitation
• The Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2014 (the 'Amy and Vicky' Act)
• Amendments to several anti-trafficking laws

Action         : 

• How to contact your Legislators and ask them to support the bills featured in this issue of Stop Trafficking!
• Do you have expertise and insight into the global dimensions of and evolving policy responses to human trafficking? The new ‘Journal of Human Trafficking’ will disseminate scholarship related to human trafficking.  Submit manuscripts to http://www.editorialmanager.com/jht

Click here for the June Stop Trafficking! Newsletter

Come Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

And from your celestial home

  Shed a ray of light divine!

Come, Father of the poor!

Come, source of all our store!

  Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best;

You, the soul’s most welcome guest;

   Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;

Grateful coolness in the heat;

  Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine,

Shine within these hearts of yours,

   And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught,

Nothing good in deed or thought,

   Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;

On our dryness pour your dew;

   Wash the stains of guilt away;

Bend the stubborn heart and will;

Melt the frozen, warm the chill;

   Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore

And confess you, evermore

   In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward;

Give them your salvation, Lord;

  Give them joys that never end. 

                                                                              

Stop Trafficking! Newsletter May 2014

This month's Human Trafficking newsletter focuses on stories of cultral bias and tradition that make human trafficking successful in many ways.

The survey by the Tahirih Justice Center and the Heartbeats project were very interesting.  Enjoy.

Let us continue our prayers, education and efforts to change the attitudes and 'closed eyes' that allow for human trafficking and help put an end to this evil in our day.

Click here for May's Stop Trafficking! Newsletter

Stop Trafficking! Jan and Feb 2014 Newsletters

January:

Awareness : 

• Stories around the world where Innocent People are Exploited. 
• Morality in Media has developed “The Dirty Dozen List,” which includes the names of 11 top promoters/distributors of pornography and the one individual most responsible for widespread distribution of illegal adult porn.
• Creating Sustainable Apparel Value Chains

Advocacy   : 

• National Educators to Stop Trafficking (NEST) - an effort to teach America's youth about the reality of human trafficking;
• January 2014 Legislative Action Alert 

Action         : Ways to get involved

Click here for Jan 2014's Stop Trafficking! Newsletter

February:

Awareness :

Prostitution: Choice or Abuse?

• Prostitution and Slavery - Sweden shows encouraging data from its implimentation of the "Nordic Model" of sea laws.
• French Members of Parliament voted in support of a version of the Nordic law on prostitution.
• Canadian Supreme Court Ruling: An Opportunity

Advocacy   :

• 10 Myths about Prostitution, Trafficking & the Nordic Model
• ‘The Ugly Truth’ Campaign - a media campaign to raise awareness about the realities of the sex trade to challenge public attitude

Action         : ‘Paid For: My Journey through Prostitution’

‘Paid For’ is Rachel Moran’s story, written over 10 years in her own words and in her own name.

Click here for Feb 2014's Stop Trafficking! newsletter

Weel 6 of Lent

 "Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna”

Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the people lining the road, shouting his praises.  By the end of this Holy Week the people will shout for him to be crucified.  Jesus is not about Kingship and power.  Jesus is about doing the Will of the Father and love.  Today begins the reading of this Passionate Love Story of God for each of us.  Let us celebrate and sing God’s praise for his love.  Let us be washed cleaned and commit ourselves once more to follow this Jesus, even unto death.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem riding humbly on the donkey we pray for forgiveness.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”

Week 5 of Lent

“ I am the resurrection and the life;

whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will never die.”

Jesus comes to the tomb of Lazarus.  This story reminds us that Jesus is about confronting the culture of death and inviting us into a new life, a risen life.  He came to give sight to the blind, freedom to the captive, liberation to the oppressed, good news to the poor: a Mission bringing fullness of life.  Imagine yourself as the bound and dead Lazarus.  Listen to the commands of Jesus: 

                “Take away the stone”

                “Lazarus come forth”

                “Unbind him”

                “Set him free”

Do the work of Lent.  Remove the stones, obstacles in your life.  Come forth, witness to your following of this Jesus.  Unbind yourself and be free to live the God Life fully.

Week 4 of Lent

“Lord, that I might see” 

Jesus encounters a man blind from birth. Jesus touches him and his life and the lives of many are changed.  There is a new clarity and awareness.  There is a moment of enlightenment and light…the eyes of many are opened.  This story, as with many of the stories of transformation, healing and conversion, reminds us of the power of forgiveness and repentance.  It is the same in our own lives.  First we encounter Jesus. In this encounter with Jesus we “wake up”! Our encounter and our new sight impels us to go forth with new life. We go forth, washed and  cleansed. We recognize and know Jesus.  We believe!

  

“Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see your face.

Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see.”

Week 3 of Lent

“the water that I will give will become a spring of eternal life”

Encountering Jesus, we thirst for that which Jesus has inspired within us… faith, hope and love.  Along our Lenten journey we encounter Jesus in some of the most unlikely places and people.  We are challenged to cleanse our hearts and minds that we can see contemplatively the presence of our God and follow.  Our Lenten purification washes away our prejudices, biases, fears and anxieties.  We are freed so that we may “Go to all peoples” and “Announce the Good News”.  May the waters of our Baptism flow like a mighty river that our discipleship be real.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says:

“For anyone who drinks it, the water that I shall give

will become in you a spring welling up to eternal life.”

Jn 4:13-14

Week 2 of Lent

              

             “transfigure us, O Lord… transfigure us O Lord”

Jesus leads Peter, James and John up a mountain and is transfigured

before them.  There is wonder and joy in recognizing Jesus.  It is

good for us too to experience mystical moments with Jesus.  To

recognize the ‘beloved’ sent by the Father in the people and events

of our lives.  We fast and pray that we may listen and respond to

Jesus’ call, ‘Come follow me’.  We commit ourselves to be a follower,

a disciple of Jesus. We pray to be transfigured, changed and converted. 

That our heart of stone be broken open and become a heart of compassion,

mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation. 

Week 1 of Lent

         “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”

Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert and is tempted by the devil. 

With Jesus, we call upon that same Spirit to lead us in moments of

dryness and withered spiritual life.  Lent calls us to recognize the

temptations in our lives and humble ourselves to call upon the Lord

in our weakness.  In these desert moments we recognize our thirst

and hunger to know and love our God more  deeply, more completely. 

Today Jesus continues to offer us the bread of heaven and the living

water of His Living Word.

October's Stop Trafficking! Focuses on the Congo

The October 2013 issue is in tune with Cluny Sisters because of our presence in the Congo and because Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny and sent sisters to missions around the world to care for the sick, the orphaned and all those wounded by life; to educate the young and the old; to free the oppressed; and to proclaim God's loving plan for all people.

We hold our sisters in the Congo and the victims of trafficking in our prayers.


In this issue:

Awareness : 

• Children and  adults in the Congo are being forced to work in mineral mines. Girls as young as 13 are forced into "marriage", abused and forced into the mines or into brothels to service mine workers.
• Forced marriages in the Congo, which not only impacts those who become enslaved but society as a whole, fall into four classifications: marriage by rape, sale or kidnapping; or child marriage.

Advocacy   :

• Health care professionals are being trained on how to recognize and treat human trafficking victims.

Action        

• Shared Hope International will conduct a conference in Washington D.C. in November that highlights current trends and challenges in juvenile sex trafficking throughout the US.
• The Tahirih Justice Center's Forced Marriage Initiative is coordinating a national response to forced marriage in the US. Tahirih invites you to sign up for the National Network to Prevent Forced Marriage, as well as the quarterly Forced Marriage Newsletter which provides information on trainings, events, policy developments, and other news related to forced marriage in the US.
• At the request by Pope Francis, there will be a Vatican will have a Conference focused on human trafficking and ways to fight it.
• Slaves tell their stories in their own voices in the book To Plead Our Own Cause published by Free the Slaves' co-founder Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd of Harvard.
• There will be a collaborative international summit in Ottawa Canada to develop a model framework a borderless International Resource and Coordination Center for the benefit of all nations.

Click here for the October 2013 newsletter 

Rejoice In The Lord Who Comes

He is coming!  He is coming! How will we know he is here?  The prophet Isaiah describes his coming as a time of justice.  Jesus “secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets captives free, gives sight to the blind; raises us those bowed down”.  Jesus “loves the just, protects strangers, sustains the fatherless and the widow, and thwarts the way of the wicked."  This kingdom of God is forever through every generation.  We rejoice that in the parched land of our world today, those who thirst will be quenched through the Incarnation of God’s Loving Presence and glad tidings will once again be shared with the poor!