Albania
Rescue, Shelter, Healing, Transformation
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
We provide Community Awareness, Prevention and direct Support in various countries, especially to women and children.
Human trafficking represents a profound violation of human dignity and contradicts the fundamental charism of the Mary Ward tradition, a legacy rooted in education, justice, and women’s empowerment. We recognise trafficking as interconnected with systemic poverty, gender inequality, inadequate education access, and discriminatory migration policies.
Pope Francis characterised trafficking as “an open wound in the body of Christ, in the body of all humanity“; a description we embrace as a call to prophetic action.
Our approach prioritises prevention through community empowerment, survivor-centred protection, and systemic advocacy. Core principles include:
Prevention-First Orientation: Addressing root causes, e.g. economic vulnerability, educational deprivation, gender-based discrimination, unsafe migration pathways; being there before trafficking occurs
Community-Trust Model: Leveraging our often very long institutional presence to facilitate trusted relationships with vulnerable populations
Integrated Approach: Simultaneously addressing intersecting injustices (FGM, domestic violence, labour exploitation, caste discrimination) affecting trafficking-vulnerable groups
Direct Service: Engage in case management, counselling, advocacy, community organising, rather than having an only distant oversight.
Evidence-Informed Advocacy: Documenting trafficking patterns from direct practice to influence district/national policy and resource allocation
Networking and Knowledge-Sharing: Operating within international networks (Talitha Kum, RENATE) and a network of our own Anti-Human Trafficking projects to exchange innovations and maintain accountability
This global commitment culminated in 2014 in designating trafficking eradication as one of our major congregational priorities, integrated into Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) frameworks and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In all our ministries to combat Human Trafficking, we deliver frontline services, counselling, case management, training facilitation, survivor support, but also offer supervisory roles. This hands-on engagement ensures trauma-informed practice, enables direct documentation of trafficking patterns, and builds survivor trust essential for holistic support.
As Mary Ward women, we aim to further Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) in a specific Mary Ward way – that is, in accordance with the charism of the Just Soul and its defining virtues of freedom, justice, sincerity and felicity which speak so powerfully to issues of JPIC and their integral nature in all aspects of mission and ministry.
We are working in different areas and projects – not out of ourselves, but because we allow ourselves to be sent by God. We form our sisters to be mobile and available, willing to go wherever they are sent. We expect them to strive, like Mary Ward, to have that inner freedom to respond to the call to leave all and follow Christ with passion and compassion.
