For religious sisters working to end forced-prostitution through
human trafficking, there is one thing consistently left out of the
conversation: the clients – who they are and how they are dealt with.
“We are especially looking at the problem of clients. It’s a topic no
one talks about. Everyone talks about victims, victims, victims. It’s
true, women become victims – of the passion of men,” Sr. Monica Chikwe
told journalists Nov. 4.
She pointed to how in the bible, there was a woman who had been
caught in adultery and brought to Jesus, but “if in the act of adultery,
I ask ‘where is the man?’ No one speaks about the man.”
“It’s the same thing today. Many speak about the victims, but who is
using these victims? Who is the client?” Sister Monica asked, explaining
that the clients aren’t homeless living on the street or men with some
sort of mental disability. Instead, they are “good men, office men,
fathers of families, men who put on a tie and go out on the street as if
it weren’t a bad thing.”
It’s these men who go out to exploit and use women, she said, adding
that her organization seeks to address the problem of clients more
directly at the State and government level.
Sr. Monica, a member of the RENATE network against human trafficking,
spoke to journalists at a press briefing about their upcoming Nov. 6-12
conference in Rome, titled “The End of Trafficking Begins with Us.”
RENATE is a European network of religious who are committed to work
together in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation.
Members consist of women religious, priests and laypersons who all have
professional training in fields such as psychology, counseling, law and
law enforcement.
Taking place at the Roman hotel Tra Noi, the conference focuses on
the mission that they are “Called to give voice to the voiceless.” In
addition to hearing several talks and visiting shelters, participants
will also have an audience with Pope Francis Monday, Nov. 7.
In her comments to journalists, Sr. Monica, who has worked in Italy
for a number of years, said what they will focus on, other than their
slogan, will be how “to stop human trafficking beginning with you.”
“It’s a topic in which each one of us must say, ‘what can I do so
that this modern phenomena, this cancer, ends?’” she said, explaining
that in her work with trafficked women forced into prostitution, the
topic of clients is one of the most urgent.
She recounted the story of a young man who went with a group to
distribute food and clothing to prostitutes in Rome. When they were
getting out of their vehicle, he looked out and saw father’s car.
“He was very shocked. It was something so big that this young man had
to do rehab, because it destroyed everything for him,” Sr. Monica said.
In another example, the Sister recalled the story of a married man
who worked in office, and one night called a prostitute before going
home.
As the two were headed out to have sex, the man’s wife called and
asked if she should throw in the pasta, since it was his usual time to
get home. However, the man said he still had a lot of work to do and
that he’d call when he was on his way.
Once he hung up the phone, the prostitute looked at him and said,
“What love do you have for your family?” particularly given the love his
wife had just shown him.
This problem, Sr. Monica said, “is one everyone needs to face,”
particularly in a country like Italy, where domestic violence rates are
especially high and a campaign is currently ongoing in a bid to end
violence against women.
“Today we have many feminicides (killings of women) in
society...because men use family resources and give them to the
prostitute. The love he should have for his wife and family, goes to the
prostitute,” she said, noting that when a man then goes home, “his wife
is no longer anything.”
“His wife is someone to eliminate, to kill. So this problem needs to
be confronted from all sides! Because it’s ruining society at every
level,” she said. “It must be confronted with the problem of the
clients. And the clients aren’t in the sky, they’re among us.”
Sr. Imelda Poole, President of RENATE and a member of the English
province of IBVM Loreto Congregation, told CNA that she thinks greed is
the ultimate cause of human trafficking.
“We’ve developed a society globally through consumerism, but it’s one
in which to be rich, to be powerful, to reach your goal. But the richer
you become, the more riches you want. And in that greed there’s an
annihilation of love,” she said.
Greed also brings an annihilation of respect and human rights, she
said, since the “total selfishness” driving greed “leads a person to
become very brutal because their conscience becomes totally suppressed,
because they’re only operating from themselves.”
It’s ultimately “the ruination that’s the human being,” whether they are the trafficker or those being trafficked, she said.
Sr. Monica said that to end the market for trafficking, particularly
forced-sex trafficking, education and the enforcement of laws are
needed.
“If a girl is there all day today, tomorrow and no one calls her, the
traffickers will understand that this merchandise needs to change,” she
said. “It starts with the law, it starts with good education.”
Modern society has lost the fundamental values that ought to govern
the life and actions of the human being, she said, adding that “we must
reform our conscience.”
While in many cases laws do exist, they are not applied, the Sister
noted, saying they have helped several girls and young women that
reported their traffickers, only to have them go to prison for a few
days and end up back on the streets.
If the problem of trafficking is faced at its roots, “automatically
the traffickers bring their product to the market, it’s not purchased,
they will change their craft. The government must have a law that
punishes and the law must be applied, whatever it is,” she said.
Referring to Red Light Districts in some countries where prostitution
is legal, Sr. Monica said “thank God” it wasn’t legalized in Italy, but
in other European countries such as Germany the girls aren’t simply
wandering the streets, but “are put in a glass container.”
“You have to go and cry” after seeing this, she said, “because they are in glass cases like dresses to go and choose.”
“Many times this makes me cry,” she said. “It makes me cry because
women shouldn’t be reduced in this way! Woman was not created for this!
It isn’t licit for men to take women and make them merchandise!”
We must “appeal to the consciences of men,” Sr. Monica said. Since
2012, her organization has rescued and re-integrated 34 women in a
systematic, personalized process.
The problem must also be tackled at the root in the girls’ home
countries, she said, because when they feel the need to leave due to a
lack of opportunities or in order to provide for their families, “this
is trouble.”
“Even when we rehabilitate them psychologically, they are damaged,”
she said. “Effectively they are destroyed. Even humanly speaking, they
are no longer persons. Because what happened is terrible.”
In her comments to CNA, Sr. Imelda said the role of religious women
in the effort to end trafficking is key not only due to the professional
skills of the members of their organization, but because “we come with a
careful understanding that we’re here for protection.”
“We’re here for rescue, but for protection and we understand the
boundaries of our work,” she said, adding that “we work right across
every discipline that can help support this work holistically.”
The key element of RENATE, she said, “is that we have love at the heart of our mission, and we are passionate about this.”
Rather than seeking “competition or power or business acumen,” the
Sisters are there because “we actually love the human person and we
believe that it’s God’s will that each human being has a right to be
fully who they were born to become.”