Sister Blandina Ryan MMM found a whole new challenge in her ministry when she was asked to “help Elizabeth”.
About ten years ago, a Sister from a local Congregation came to me with a pleading look in her eye. I remember it well. Little did I know what was in front of me when she asked: Will you help Elizabeth?
This Sister had been helping a family of five children, but now she had been elected Mother General of her Congregation and would be moving to live elsewhere. It seemed a simple enough request as I was already involved in a number of social projects in our parish.
Father couldn’t cope
To help this defenceless family meant housing them, schooling them, feeding them, being there for them, everything that parents would do for a child.
When their father was released from prison he tried to take care of them for a while. But his gambling addiction was serious. He would bring his debtors to the house and the debtors would take away their cooking utensils, mattresses – anything they could find in payment for what the father was owing them.
Sugar daddies
Elizabeth was determined to go to university after finishing secondary school. We said no, that was beyond our resources. She must find work to help the family to become self-reliant. We would help her to set up a store in the market and to become a trader. We helped her to find a placement in the market, where she could understudy one of the women who was already successfully trading there.
Half-heartedly Elizabeth agreed to do this, but her mind was still set on going to university. She was a very frail looking girl and we were not sure that she was capable of studying for a degree. Besides, we had no funds for her fees, and we felt that if she was determined enough, she could earn the fees to study later on.
She decided that instead of opening her own stall in the market, she would hawk cosmetics which could earn a good commission. She went to the capital city to do that but before long she got sick and those keeping her got tired of her when she had no income. So she returned to our market and got some work there.
Teaching the trade
At the end of the week, Magdalena told Elizabeth that she had two brothers in the capital city who would be very grateful that Elizabeth had saved Magdalena’s life and that she should go with her to meet them as they would want to thank her. The two of them set off, and on arrival they were welcomed by the brothers. Elizabeth was thanked for her kindness. She was taken to a boutique where they bought new dresses for her and after a day or two she was given money and returned home, very happy that she now had friends in the capital city, who might help her if she wanted to return there.
Good fortune
The process began, getting her passport etc. Eventually she went. Her brothers and sisters heard no more from her. As far as they were concerned she had disappeared.
About a year later, my friend, the Mother General of the local Congregation of Sisters was in Rome visiting her young sisters studying there. To her surprise she received a phone call from Elizabeth. My friend was surprised to find she was in Rome. They arranged to meet and Elizabeth told her story.
Taken to the street
She told the Madame that if the work involved prostitution, she was not going to enter into it. She remained in the house for two weeks at the end of which she was dressed as prostitutes are dressed and taken to the street with another girl. She screamed and made so much noise that the Madame had to take her home again. She was flogged until she bled and a well-known custom of invoking evil spirits was used to frighten her. She was warned that if she did not comply with the rules and regulations of that house she would die. Elizabeth told the Madame she was ready to die but was not ready to enter into prostitution.
The next night, broken and bruised, she was put on the street again, and she repeated her performance of screaming and shouting but the Madame left her there and drove away.
Help from an Italian
The man asked Elizabeth to wait there saying that he was coming back. He went home and collected his wife and together they came back to Elizabeth and took her off the street. They were the parents of two children around Elizabeth’s age. Every night for two weeks they took Elizabeth to their home, each morning giving her 100,000 lire to pay the Madame.
This couple knew they couldn’t continue this, and all the while they were trying to find a solution. They called on their relatives to help and managed to collect 30,000,000 lire between them. The wife accompanied Elizabeth to the Madame to pay the money for her release but the Madame said she required 70,000,000 lire and locked up both the wife and Elizabeth. Realising what had happened, the husband came with an axe and cut down the door and rushed them into his car. In releasing his wife and Elizabeth the money was dropped and no receipt was issued.
Like parents to Elizabeth
When my friend returned from visiting her student Sisters in Rome, she went to visit Elizabeth’s sisters and brothers to give them the news that she had met Elizabeth and to tell them the whole story. The day after that the young family had other visitors – this time from the capital city, armed with guns. They threatened the eldest brother, saying that if he did not produce US$30,000 to pay for Elizabeth’s release they would be killed. They falsely claimed that her brother had entered an agreement regarding the cost of sending her to Europe.
He immediately reported this to the police near his home. Before long, we were embarking on a lengthy legal procedure, journeying many times from our city to the capital for police investigations or court hearings. We called on the best legal help our parish could offer. Thanks to their help, in the end the false claims against the young family were dropped.
Widespread problem
I also visited some of the communal homes where those who, like Elizabeth, wish to escape from the slavery of prostitution can receive support and care. There are about eighty such communities in Italy, consisting of two ‘house mothers’ and eight to ten young women who have given up street work and want to better their lives. Some of the girls came when they were pregnant and had their babies delivered and are rearing their infants in these homes. They are also helped to get work permits, and to get a new passport from their home country, as their original would have been seized while they were in bondage.
Happily married
We are hoping that the International Organization for Migration will help us to set up a shelter in our country to meet and welcome other young women who are sold into the slavery of prostitution, so that they can go to the police in the country to which they have been unwittingly sold. In that case they are likely to be deported. Our dream is to have a place where they can be met on arrival home and be cared for and supported until they are able to get back on their feet again.
Editor’s Note
: We are not publishing the country where Elizabeth lived in order not to point the finger at any particular nation. We hear of experiences like Elizabeth’s from many parts of the world as the business of bonded prostitutes is so widely practised. According to the International Organisation for Migration, every year an estimated 500,000 women are brought to Europe illegally to meet the demands of the sex market.Elizabeth is still in Italy. She was advised not to return home as her life could be in danger. She is now happily married to a young man from her home country and expecting their first baby. We are still supporting her younger brothers and sisters. We have managed to help the eldest of these, Rosemarie, to reach her fourth year of university, studying law. She will make a fine human rights lawyer. One of her brothers is ready to start his University studies in engineering. Elizabeth is typical of thousands of women in many poor countries. Their situation is of grave concern to the Congregations of women religious, many of whom have their headquarters in Rome. Recently, I was invited there to discuss the problem at the Office for the Prevention of Trafficking of Women run by the religious Congregations, which is headed by Sister Eugenia Bonetti, a Missionary Sister of Consolata. My heart ached when I was taken out by night to meet some of these young women from our city on the streets of Rome and near Naples.They made room for Elizabeth in their home and cared for her like parents. Then began the long process to get her a work permit to remain in Italy. Meanwhile they got her a small job looking after an elderly couple where she was very comfortable. An Italian man stopped his car and asked her what the problem was. Elizabeth was too upset to speak and didn’t know enough Italian to explain. Another girl in prostitution close by explained the problem but said she felt that in time Elizabeth would enter the business. When she had left home she was flown, not to Germany, but to Rome. At the airport she was met and taken to the home of a woman from her home country who ran a brothel. She was welcomed and told she would have two weeks to learn what to do and to learn Italian. Elizabeth thought she was in Germany and asked why she had to learn Italian. Then it dawned on her how she had been duped and what kind of ‘supermarket’ it was.Six weeks later, Elizabeth got a message saying she should stand by the phone of her neighbour to receive a call from the capital city. This she did. It was Magdalena’s two brothers informing her that Magdalena was now in Germany running a supermarket for her auntie. Because of the help Elizabeth had given to Magdalena and had saved her life the brothers wanted to help Elizabeth to go to Germany to join her. Elizabeth could not believe her good fortune.One day, a girl called Magdalena came up to her. She seemed very scattered, her hair untidy, her clothes torn. She told Elizabeth a very sad story about what had befallen her and begged Elizabeth to help her and to teach her how to trade in the market. Because of her own suffering Elizabeth decided to help Magdalena and took her to the room where she was living. For one week Magdalena stayed with her, understudying her at her trade, she prayed with her, ate with her, moved everywhere with her, and – most of all – learned how she could take a phone call through the help of some neighbours. Our great fear was that the next source of income would be the Sugar Daddies. Elizabeth and Rosemarie were in secondary school by now, and we prayed every day that we would be able to protect them. If only we could manage to keep up payment of their school fees and get them through secondary school we would say ‘that’s it’. We would have given them a start in life. We would help them to get employment and take care of themselves.Soon I met Elizabeth who was about thirteen years of age and her two brothers and sisters, all younger. Their father was a gambler. He had been imprisoned and their mother, depressed after the death of a new-born infant, simply could not cope. She ran away, abandoning the five youngsters.
