An army of nuns are desperately fighting human trafficking – won’t you help?

This NBC report tells their wonderful, brave story like none I’ve seen

Thanks to NBC News for this feature by Jake Whitman, Cynthia McFadden and Rich Schapiro.  I’ve known for years that Catholic nuns are some of the most ardent fighters against human trafficking, but I was never aware of the number of them that go out every day in search of ways to combat this scourge.

According to this report, more than 60,000 nuns are members of an organization called Talitha Kum.  It was founded 12 years ago in Rome, and now labors in search of human trafficking victims in 92 countries.

From the article:

“If you want people to understand the urgency of the problem, you can’t be tiptoeing around it,” said Sister Jeanne Christensen, a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Catholic Sisters against Human Trafficking, which works with Talitha Kum.

The scale of the problem is huge: The International Labor Organization estimates that roughly 25 million people are in forced labor across the globe, with nearly 5 million facing forced sexual exploitation. The majority of sexual exploitation victims live in Asia and the Pacific region — about 3.5 million compared to 200,000 in the Americas, according to the latest estimates.

“Human trafficking is everywhere,” Christensen said.

“If you live in a small town in Iowa and there’s a highway going through town,” she added. “Airports. Train depots. Bus depots. Take your pick.”

NBC News

Here’s a recording of their Today Show feature which aired 4/4/21:

While there are many organizations here in the US that are doing similar work, my heart goes out even more to those overseas, who don’t have offices, copy machines and technology conveniently at their disposal. If you feel the same, here are a couple of ways you can help.