FOUR hundred students from Lourdes Hill College, Hawthorn, have taken a stand against human trafficking, and their passion is already spreading to fellow Catholic schools.
Inspired by Good Samaritan Sister Pauline Coll, who has been in Rome discussing this global form of exploitation with Vatican authorities, the girls protested silently along Hawthorne Road for one hour before classes began on October 18.
That afternoon Lourdes Hill hosted a social justice event – attended by students from Carmel College, Villanova College, St James’, Saint Laurence’s and San Sisto – where there was a focus on raising awareness about human trafficking.
All visiting schools were keen to incorporate the issue of human trafficking into their social justice programs.
Year 12 service and spirituality leader at Lourdes Hill Tamika Borgo created the protest banner and spoke at the social justice gathering.
“Human trafficking is a silent crime because most victims are very poor people who have no way to tell the rest of the world about the terrible things that have happened to them,” she said.
“This makes it an issue many people don’t know about, so we thought the best way to stop human trafficking would be to help raise public awareness.”
Tamika said her goal was to make a difference at Lourdes Hill before she graduated.
“I call it a ‘day of action’ that we had, and I’m going to try and make the ‘day of action’ an annual thing at the school before I leave,” she said.
“It wouldn’t have to be about human trafficking, it could be about any social justice issue.”
Lourdes Hill chaplain Natalie L’Huillier was impressed to see her students involved in “hands on” justice.
Australia is a popular destination for human trafficking, with victims coming from East Asia, South East Asia and eastern Europe, particularly the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Thailand.
An estimated 1000 women are working as sex slaves in Australia and as many as 300 are smuggled here each year.
