National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is the association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States including the Notre Dame Sisters.
Women religious around the world are deeply involved in protecting and promoting the dignity of trafficked people and to creating long-term change to dismantle the systems that enable oppression and exploitation. In 2014, we Notre Dame Sisters recognized human trafficking becoming an epidemic. We teamed up with the Servants of Mary and the Sisters of Mercy to begin the Coalition on Human Trafficking.
The Coalition on Human Trafficking
We strive to eliminate human trafficking through awareness and education. With community-based collaboration, we provide information to mobilize people to Realize, Recognize and Respond to Human Trafficking.
The Coalition training focuses on businesses. Since a high percentage of human trafficking occurs in hotels and motels, the Coalition began training all employees in hotels and motels and have trained in over 150 h/ms. Other businesses include OPPD, Ameristar Casino, Lincoln Electric Company.
The Coalition is now reaching out to other businesses to partner with in addressing this major issue.
Below is information from LCWR about National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
Homeland Security
The Departments of State and Homeland Security (DHS) play key roles in raising awareness of human trafficking domestically and abroad and in supporting efforts of anti-trafficking organizations, communities of faith, state and local law enforcement, survivor advocates, businesses, and private citizens all around the world to end human trafficking.
Biden Administration
The Biden Administration continues to focus on prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships in its updated National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking by:
- Bolstering partnerships with industry to prohibit forced labor in supply chains
- Developing improvements to prevent human trafficking of foreign workers and students
- Strengthening efforts to identify and respond to human trafficking they may encounter
- Improving access to immigration assistance programs for victims of human trafficking
- Increasing coordination with law enforcement agencies and the social media and technology industry to hold traffickers accountable and dismantle human trafficking networks
- Enhancing initiatives that combat forced labor and traffickers’ illicit use of financial systems
#WearBlueDay
DHS’s Blue Campaign will host several special events and educational activities throughout the month. Its largest initiative is #WearBlueDay on January 11. To raise awareness of human trafficking, the public is invited to take photos of themselves, friends, family, and colleagues wearing blue clothing and share them on social media along with the #WearBlueDay hashtag.
Learn more
Talitha Kum recently released a video featuring the voices of sisters describing the networks anti-trafficking efforts: