Women Religious Vow Solidarity In Fight Against Human Trafficking

November 12, 2018

Comboni Sister Gabriella Bottani, coordinator of Talitha Kum International Network of Consecrated Life Against Trafficking in Persons, listens at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Parma, Ohio, during an Oct. 26 meeting of women religious from throughout the Western Hemisphere who are working to stop human trafficking. (Credit: Dennis Sadowski/CNS.)

PARMA, Ohio  – There was a time years ago when Flor Molina was working in a Southern California sewing factory, earning a scant wage and sleeping at night in a storage room not far from the factory floor.

On top of that, her bosses forbid her from talking with the other employees.

It was not the life she imagined when she accepted an offer 16 years ago from a factory recruiter in her native Mexico who promised good pay and decent housing.

Molina had made the difficult decision to leave her mother and children behind in Mexico for six months so she could save the $5,000 she needed to start her own sewing business. She had been sewing clothes and gained a decent customer base; she dreamed of taking the next step as an entrepreneur.

After 40 days in the factory, Molina escaped and found help. She realized she had become a victim of unscrupulous human traffickers and her only value to them was her labor.

Now 46 and living in Los Angeles, Molina told her story Oct. 26 to 60 participants in the Borders Are not Barriers conference of women religious, a handful of priests and justice ministry workers from throughout the Western Hemisphere working to stop human trafficking.

To read the full story by Dennis Sadowski on CRUX: Click Here

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