Italian
Consolata Sister Eugenia Bonetti, a driving force in the fight against
trafficking and prostitution, was among the recipients of the European
Citizen’s Prize 2013.
The annual award was launched by the European
Parliament in 2008 to recognise exceptional achievements by individual
citizens or groups who facilitate cross-border cooperation within the EU
or promote better mutual understanding between citizens and member
states.
It can also be awarded for day-to-day activities reflecting the
values enshrined in the EU's charter of fundamental rights.
Sr
Eugenia, who is chairperson of the 'Slaves No More ' non-profit
organization and coordinator of the Italian religious superiors’
Counter-trafficking Office for Women and Children, began spearheading
the struggle against this modern form of slavery two decades
ago.
It
was back in 1993 that Italian Consolata sister Eugenia Bonetti first
started seeing African women standing on the roadsides waiting for
clients – a common sight around many of Italy’s larger towns and cities.
Sr Eugenia had previously spent over two and half decades working as a
missionary in Africa and she was shocked to see how many young girls,
mainly Nigerians but also from other African nations, were working as
prostitutes back in her home town of Turin.
But then one of these
girls, Maria, turned up at the Caritas centre where she worked and
followed her to Mass that evening – an event that would profoundly
change Eugenia’s life and challenge all her ideas about religious
ministry and mission.
In short, she says, Maria became her catechist,
helping her understand the complex routes by which so many women and
girls end up trafficked from places across the globe, to be bought and
sold, beaten and raped and end up working the streets of our so-called
civilised countries.
Today there are some 27 million victims of a
global trafficking industry with a turnover of around 32 billion dollars
a year.
For the past two decades, Sr Eugenia has been on the frontline
of the Catholic Church’s efforts here in Italy to combat this trade in
human beings, to break the chains of this modern form of slavery and to
help trafficked women regain a sense of hope and dignity in their
shattered lives.