A unique partnership has been forged by three Catholics to heal and protect these survivors.
They have joined forces to bring religious sisters in to the U.S. to minister, provide safe places for victims while they heal, and to put programs of prevention, protection, identification, and healing in place.
Through this partnership, 24 religious sisters were brought in from Nigeria this past fall. The sisters representing six different congregations were flown into Louisiana to join five sisters already working at a safe house in Louisiana. They stayed at a Louisiana police training barracks for 10 days of training, then split up to apprentice at six different rehabilitation homes. In December, the sisters were dispersed among five dioceses in five states to minister to survivors. Plans are in place to bring in more sisters from Nigeria, and also from the Philippines, and to build more safe houses.
New partnership
The effort began with three Catholics who learned of one another through their own work against human trafficking.
Keenan Fitzpatrick, cofounder with his wife Brianna Fitzpatrick of AVODAH Farms based in Colorado, provides space for women, families, and young people to find restoration from human trafficking through farming, compassion, and supportive housing, with the integration of teaching and prayer.
Father Jeff Bayhi of the diocese of Baton Rouge in Louisiana is running Metanoia Manor — Greek for “change of heart” — a house for survivors of human trafficking, ministering through five religious Sisters of Mercy caring for them ’round the clock.
Deb O’Hara-Rusckowski, is a former critical care nurse, married to Steve Rusckowski with two children (one in heaven) and four grandchildren. She is a special advisor to the ambassador on human trafficking for the Order of Malta’s Mission to the United Nations, focusing on human trafficking and the global refugee crisis. O’Hara-Rusckowski co-founded Global Strategic Operatives for the Eradication of Human Trafficking (GSO), which conducts trainings for health care and other front-line entities such as airlines and the service industry, on how to identify survivors and take appropriate actions. She has likewise been a guest speaker on human trafficking at both the New York City and Long Island Legatus Chapters.
Global Strategic Operatives (GSO) formed in 2018 to train health care systems in combatting trafficking worldwide. It concentrated on the healthcare sector, based on evidence that some 88 percent of victims seek medical care or treatment while being trafficked. GSO thus created a pilot project in six large healthcare systems in six U.S. cities and five internationally – in India, the UK, Italy, Ethiopia, and Nigeria – to train and institute programs through entire hospital networks while simultaneously establishing relationships with local shelters, law enforcement, and Homeland Security agents.
The problem
In the 1980s, O’Hara-Rusckowski was a critical care nurse in Boston, sometimes working in the emergency room. “If a prostitute came in, we [the nurses] used to look at one another and roll our eyes,” she told Legatus magazine. “Now, I’m trying to teach them to start thinking: Who is forcing them to do this?”
The problem is immense, O’Hara-Rusckowski explained. “Forty million worldwide are trafficked. It is estimated there is $150 billion in profit; $60 million in labor trafficking and the rest in sex trafficking. Seventy-two percent of sex trafficking is of women and girls, and labor trafficking is 63 percent boys and men.” She revealed that little boys as young as four are victims of sex trafficking. “It makes homeland security sick to their stomachs, and they want to get these people.”
Nurses and social workers learn to look for women who don’t seem to know their address because they are moved around so often, or if someone sitting with them answering all the questions. The goal is to get them separated and offer an opportunity to ask for help. “On average, it takes seven visits to a health care facility before a victim is ready to accept help,” O’Hara-Rusckowski said. “You can put the help in front of them, but if they are not ready, forget it. You may just be planting the seeds.”
She noted that when a victim is ready for help, they are often put in homeless shelters where the recidivism rate is seven times higher than that of a safe home. “They are traumatized,” she explained. “They need someone proficient to get them the help they need. When I started 10 years ago, all of New England had six beds and now has 34 beds, which is still not enough. This is a crisis. When they are ready, they need help.”
A godly solution
Through her work, O’Hara- Rusckowski met Keenan Fitzpatrick, founder of the Colorado-based AVODAH Farms, who was repurposing church buildings as safe homes. “The name AVODAH is a Hebrew word that means ‘work, worship, and service,’” Fitzpatrick explained.
“AVODAH first provides space for women-survivors of sex trafficking to find healing.”
This father of soon-to-be five children works in several jobs, including consulting and investing. He finds creative ways to make safe housing available, such as the repurposing of a former 50-bed Mormon seminary in Boulder for Christian student housing, while setting aside five to 10 of those beds for trafficking survivors ready to move into phase two.
Fitzpatrick was inspired by a friend working against human trafficking and felt called to also help. “I had an idea that churches have leftover land and vacant buildings,” he said. “I began talking with bishops about turning them into safe homes.”
The idea to bring in religious sisters came through Fitzpatrick’s friendship with Fr. Bayhi. “He has a home for juvenile-trafficked survivors in Baton Rouge that relies on five sisters from Nigeria,” Fitzpatrick explained. “They are emotionally and spiritually strong for this work and their success rates are high. This is a model with great results that we wanted him to help bring nationally.”
Fitzpatrick noted that in countries such as Nigeria and the Philippines, vocations for religious sisters are booming. “The sisters are truly witnesses of rejoicing in all things,” he said. “Even after traveling for two days to America and being exhausted physically and emotionally, they were constantly singing, dancing, and praising God. Their hearts are primed to receive the brokenness of these women and direct them to the healing heart of Jesus.”
Fr. Bayhi helps make connections with religious congregations, then local bishops give permission and parishes agree to accept them and offer support. The Order of Malta has helped finance their transportation, training, and legal work for immigration.
“The Catholic Church is the best place to go,” Fitzpatrick noted. “Their model is the most sustainable; having these nuns as mothers and mentors who rely on Jesus. They show the women that they are lovable.”
Although the religious sisters’ mission is to provide a new start, not to proselytize, their commitment to their vocations speaks volumes. O’Hara- Rusckowski noted that they will work with other Christian organizations, but they are following Catholic teaching which means no abortions and no contraception.
“Victim survivors need to abstain from sexual activity for their healing,” she said. “Abortion is often a big issue. We will not participate in taking them to another abortion. Forced abortion is part of the trafficker’s tool kit. If that costs us federal money, so be it. We are doing this through the grace of God.”
PATTI ARMSTRONGis a Legatus magazine contributing writer.