Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
0 Shares
The Repub­lic of Chi­na (Tai­wan) spon­sored the Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence focus­ing on the Pas­toral Ori­en­ta­tions on Human Traf­fick­ing to effec­tive­ly answer Pope Fran­cis’ call on Feb­ru­ary 10, when the Holy Father invit­ed gov­ern­ments “to join forces to over­come this chal­lenge. All of us, can and must work togeth­er to denounce the cas­es of exploita­tion and slav­ery of men, women and children.”

About 200 par­tic­i­pants attend­ed this event host­ed by the Migrants and Refugees Sec­tion of the Dicas­t­ery for Pro­mot­ing Inte­gral Human Devel­op­ment. The con­fer­ence cul­mi­nat­ed in a pri­vate audi­ence with Pope Francis.

In his address, Ambas­sador Lee expressed Tai­wan’s will­ing­ness to coop­er­ate with the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to pro­tect human dig­ni­ty. He list­ed the efforts made by Tai­wan in this field, includ­ing the mem­o­ran­dum of under­stand­ing signed by Tai­wan and 18 oth­er coun­tries on immi­gra­tion affairs and pre­ven­tion of human trafficking.

Ambas­sador Lee then intro­duced to the pub­lic a speak­er from Tai­wan: Dr. Chi Hui-Jung, CEO of The Gar­den of Hope Foun­da­tion, a Chris­t­ian-based NGO spe­cial­iz­ing in assist­ing female vic­tims and sur­vivors of sex­u­al abus­es, domes­tic vio­lence and human-trafficking.

In her address titled “Pas­toral Com­mit­ment to Break­ing the Chain: Anti-Human Traf­fick­ing in Tai­wan,” Dr. Chi explained the pas­toral care her orga­ni­za­tion gives to all the vic­tims, regard­less of their nation­al­i­ty or reli­gion. The staff mem­bers at the shel­ters respect every reli­gion and help vic­tims with find­ing new direc­tions. She hoped the Church can use its influ­ence to part­ner with more NGOs to make a greater impact in the fight against human trafficking.