On 8 March, 2016, International Women’s Day, at the request of Mercy International Association, the Embassy of the Philippines in Washington, DC, welcomed the presentation: Exploiting Vulnerability - An Exploration of the Lives of Women Trafficked for Sexual Exploitation.

L-r: Mely Lenario, Angela Reed rsm, Mariette Latonio, Aine O'Connor rsm

The presenter was Angela Reed, PhD, a Sister of Mercy from Australia, who had completed her PhD requirements with research focused on giving voice to Filipino women who had been trafficked in order to hear their unique insights. Sr. Angela, who is currently doing an internship at the United Nations in NYC working alongside Aine O’Connor, RSM, was joined in her presentation by her colleagues, research assistant Ms. Mariette Latonio and Ms. Mely Lenario. Along with Sr. Angela, these women from Cebu shared their knowledge, insights and concerns and using story, song, and art, the presenters shared the complex and denigrating global reality of human trafficking.

Acknowledging that human trafficking is caused by demand, the presentation included an overview of the social, political and economic factors that render women and young girls vulnerable to trafficking. Grounded in the life experience of forty formerly trafficked women, the presentation emphasized the importance of understanding vulnerability to human trafficking from a Life Course Perspective. Set within a human rights framework this perspective recognizes cumulative disadvantage over the life course, beginning in childhood and continuing into adolescent and early adult years.

At the beginning of the evening all present were invited to walk amongst the painted images depicting the lives of fifteen young women who had been trafficked in Cebu. These images were painted by Filipino Sr Venus Pegar who prepared the images for the 'I Have a Voice' publication edited by Sr. Angela Reed and Marietta Latonio.

A very moving part of the presentation was when Survivor Advocate, Ms Lenario, shared her own story of being trafficked and her journey from despair to hope. Following her story, those gathered at the embassy were presented with seven sex trafficking paradigms as outlined by Dr. Angela Reed RSM including Globalisation, Economics, Migration, Organised Crime, Human Rights, Gender and Localised. Drawing on her PhD research on trafficking, Sr. Angela advocates for an eighth paradigm in which vulnerability to trafficking is seen as occurring over the life course. In this sense trafficking can be viewed as systemic violations of human rights rather than random acts of violence. Angela doesn’t 'believe that most victims of trafficking experience random acts of violence, rather, many have been subjected to cumulative disadvantage over the life course and it is not an accident that they are then easy prey to traffickers'.

The presentation continued with Marietta offering an overview of support services offered by Good Shepherd services in Cebu. In addition recommendations were made as to the ways in which programs and policies could respond to the insights gained by women’s shared experiences of trafficking.

Sr Mary Mulholland, convener of the group, concluded the evening with special thanks offered to the Embassy of the Phillipines for their wonderful hospitality and for the delicious dinner of Filipino food offered to all present! The presenters were acknowledged for their work on this issue and for their informative and very moving and engaging presentation. All agreed that in this Year of Mercy and on International Women’s Day it was so important for us to open our hearts to a deeper awareness of the issue of human trafficking sadly so present in our world today.

Messages to:
Angela Reed rsm - Resident, Mercy Global Action
Mary Mulholland rsm - Assistant Director Mercy Mission Advancement MIA