Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
10 August 2007
Benin City — Nigerian nuns are celebrating the realization of their dream to set up a home for rescued victims of human trafficking, a worsening evil in the country and West Africa in general.
The dream came true on July 11, when the Women Resource Centre was opened.
The home is a generous donation from the Italian bishop's conference. It was built and supervised by Fr. Vincenzo Marrone and other Salesian Missionaries in Akure/Ibadan. Caritas Italiana bought the land upon which the shelter is built. The Dutch Foundation of Religious against Trafficking in Women (SRTV), Missio Aachen and many other groups gave generous donations.
The idea to do something about the vice came to mind after the nuns came face to face with the reality of Nigerian girls involved in prostitution in Europe. In 1999 the nuns formed the Committee for the Support of the Dignity of Women (COSUDOW) to address more concretely the issue of sexual abuse of Nigerian girls in Italy.
The nuns say Benin City is the worst-hit area of trafficking in Nigeria.
At the opening ceremony on July 11, the Holy Mass was presided over by Archbishop Felix Alaba Job of Ibadan who is also president of Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria.
The archbishop called for creation of awareness on the dangers of prostitution among youth in schools and universities. He also said statistics showed that Christian women were involved in human trafficking. He urged them to desist from the practice and urged the nuns to look for ways of rescuing trafficked women still wandering on the streets of Europe.
Mother Ifechukwu Udorah, DDL, president of the Nigeria Conference of Women Religious (NCWR) thanked the committee members of COSUDOW, the Italian Bishops and Rev. Sister Eugenia Bonnetti, MC for working tirelessly to make sure that trafficking is eradicated.
The administrator of the Archdiocese of Benin City, Fr. James-Mary Okunbor assured COSUDOW that the Archdiocese of Benin would not fail to assist the shelter whenever the need arose.
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