US Embassy to the Holy See in anti-trafficking partnership with women religious

(Vatican Radio) The US Embassy to the Holy See is continuing its partnership with the Talitha Kum Campaign - an international network of women religious, who have made the fight to end human trafficking a central focus of their mission. 

Worldwide, between 12 million and 27 million people live as victims of human traffickers. Women and girls account for roughly three quarters of all victims, more than half of whom are held in a state of sexual servitude, with 36 percent of victims being put to forced labor.

At a special conference for journalists at the Press Office of the Holy See on Tuesday morning, officers of Talitha Kum and representatives of the Campaign’s partners, including the US mission to the Vatican, presented initiatives connected with raising public awareness and preventing the traffic in human persons – especially commerce in girls and young women for purposes of sexual slavery – at the upcoming World Cup in Brazil.

US Ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth Hackett, spoke to us about his regard for the work of Talitha Kum, “Little girl, arise!” in Aramaic, and alludes  to the account, in the Gospel according to St. Mark, of Christ’s raising a young girl from the dead. “The US mission to the Holy See has been collaborating with Talitha Kum and [Talitha Kum Coordinator] Sr. Estrella Castalone FMA, for a number of years now, because we see this as a very important issue – the whole issue of human trafficking and how it affects people worldwide, in many different ways,” he said. “Talitha Kum is an organization that has done some wonderful things,” the Ambassador continued, “they’re trying to raise the visibility, the attention to and awareness of the trafficking issue, as we lead into the World Cup in Brazil.”

Talitha Kum’s Brazil 2014 initiative follows its at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2012 Olympics in London. In November of last year, member networks from 17 countries in Latin America gathered with women religious from 20 states of Brazil for a preparatory workshop ahead of the 2014 tournament, which is scheduled to begin on June 12th. 

Listen to the extended interview by Christopher Altieri with Ambassador Hackett...