Orders Aiding Sex Slaves, Exploited Women, Trafficked Women, Etc.

[Gabriela]

Does anyone know of any American women's orders with this apostolate? I know of the house in California, but judging by their website, the sisters are no longer involved there. All the other orders doing this work appear to be Asian.

 

?

[Lumiere]

Here are some links I found during a quick search:

 

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8918320

 

http://www.ruhama.ie/page.php?intPageID=4

 

http://www.mqhm.org/filipino-sisters-seek-to-rescue-women-from-sex-trade/

 

The Immaculate Mary Queen of Heaven Missionaries (the last link) seem to have a contact in California. http://www.mqhm.org/contact-us/

[beatitude]

The Good Shepherd Sisters. It's a major part of their apostolate, although they do have other ministries as well. They have two branches, contemplative and active. I looked into the contemplatives when I was discerning religious life. Beautiful community. From their site:

 

We are actively involved in a variety of ministries including:
• Working with women involved in prostitution
• Assisting victims of trafficking
• Ministry to girls, women and children who are homeless
• Providing sheltered accommodation for vulnerable groups
• Support for victims of domestic abuse
• Parish and youth work
• Working with women in addiction and recovery
• Family and elderly support
• Counselling
• Spiritual Direction and Prayer groups
• Convalescent care for the older people
• Work with refugees and asylum seekers
• Prison and hospital chaplaincy
• Public policy work

Edited December 15, 2012 by beatitude

[the171]

St. Faustina's order helps prostitutes.

Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy

[Hna.Caridad]

While I’m not aware of any congregation that has this as their primary apostolate, I know that there are TONS of women’s congregations in the U.S. who work in one way or another (providing emergency shelter and/or on-going counseling to victims; educating the public—specifically law enforcement officials & those in the hotel/tourism industry—so that incidents of trafficking & exploitation will be more easily identified & reported; and lobbying congress for stricter/tougher laws & penalties for the traffickers, pimps, & johns who exploit the victims) to bring an end to human trafficking & sexual exploitation.

 

The congregations that I’m aware of who do this type of work tend to be non-habited.  Due to the organized crime element that is almost always involved in human trafficking & sexual exploitation, providing direct services (especially in terms of shelter) to trafficking victims is very dangerous.  In order to protect the victims that they are sheltering/assisting, many congregations may not come out & publicly say that they provide direct services to trafficking victims.

 

A good place to start would be with the congregations in your own diocese.  Ask around—you’ll find that this type of apostolate is more common than you realize.