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2024 Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards – Arise, UISG and Hilton

2024 Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards – Arise, UISG and Hilton
04/06/2024

The 2024 Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards (SATAs) was held in Rome on May 23rd, 2024. The SATAs is the annual celebration of three sisters, as representatives of their congregations and networks, who have demonstrated exceptional courage, creativity, collaboration, and achievement in protecting their communities from human trafficking.

Tens of thousands of sisters worldwide dedicate their lives to protecting their communities from exploitation daily. Embedded in the communities they serve and providing a profound quality of care, sisters provide sustainable and meaningful support to those suffering. They are well-placed to identify and address the systemic causes that put people from their communities at risk. Arise is proud to support hundreds of sisters each year in their anti-trafficking work.

The SATAs is an opportunity to promote the phenomenal work of Catholic sisters on the frontlines against trafficking, share knowledge, and foster anti-trafficking efforts between congregations, and broaden and deepen the protection of communities vulnerable to trafficking worldwide.

The three awards are:

  • The Common Good Award for courage and creativity was won by Sr. Grasy Luisa Rodriguez, FDCC from Goa, India
  • The Servant Leadership Award for excellence in network building was won by Sr. Anne Victory HM from Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
  • The Human Dignity Award for lifetime achievement in addressing exploitation was won by Sr. Marie Claude Naddaf RGS from Beirut, Lebanon.

Delia Gallagher, a Vatican broadcaster, moderated the event, while testimony speeches were given by Mary Mugo, a Talitha Kum Youth Ambassador from Kenya; Nasreen Sheikh, a survivor advocate originally from Nepal; and Kevin Hyland, formerly the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and now the Chair of Arise, and Strategic Director of the Santa Marta Group.

Sr. Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, delivered the keynote, underlining how vital it is to listen to victims and survivors and to serve those on the peripheries in general.

As for the last year, we intend to hold a webinar with the three award-winner Sisters to raise awareness of their work to combat human trafficking.

Furthermore, H.E. Michel Veuthey and Emanuele G. A. Piluso participated in Talitha Kum’s 2nd General Assembly, which took place from 18 to 24 May 2024 at the Fraterna Domus in Sacrofano, Rome. Around 200 Talitha Kum delegates from around 90 countries, representing women and men religious, laity, young people, and survivors, gathered for the General Assembly, which also marks its 15th anniversary this year.