A Song of Resilience
Laura Krausa
Every February 8th we celebrate the Feast Day for St. Josephine Bakhita, the Patron Saint of Victims of Human Trafficking. This remarkable woman was kidnapped as a seven-year-old child and sold into slavery – an event that was so traumatic that this wounded child could not even remember her name. She was given the name Bakhita, which means “fortunate.” Fortunate, however, was anything but what she lived through after her kidnapping. She suffered acts of horrific violence in her forced servitude but ultimately found her way to the Canossian Sisters who introduced her to the Catholic faith and to Jesus. This experience forever changed her life, drawing her into a relationship with God and causing her to ultimately give thanks for the harsh life that had brought her to our Lord. Imagine the kind of grace that makes space not merely for forgiveness, but for gratitude.
Sometimes in life, bad things happen to good people and there is no rhyme or reason. St. Bakhita said in her autobiography that prior to her kidnapping “(She) lived a very happy and carefree life, without knowing what suffering was.” She was surrounded by a loving and supportive family. She had built-in resilience!
Sometimes in life, bad things happen to good people because they are left vulnerable. Their resilience is depleted because they do not have a supportive structure, or they experience some type of life stressor. When resilience is depleted and when the element of risk is introduced, a person may easily fall into a situation of violence, including human trafficking.
So many stressors in today’s society leave us vulnerable. Top of mind for me recently are the numerous societal challenges we face that chip away at our individual capacity to protect ourselves from harms, including those physical, mental, intellectual and emotional. Specifically, I think about the quality of the conversations that dominate our news cycles and social media, and how they have devolved into an almost continual dissonance. We live in a contentious climate where rhetoric erodes our relationships and where resulting actions actually de-activate our feelings of hope and trust. We live within an increasingly unceasing dialogue that is violent in nature – one that plagues individual and collective resilience.
And…our children are listening. The most vulnerable among us are listening and witnessing this violent narrative! St. Bakhita was raised in a supportive and loving home before she was kidnapped. Many children today also come from loving homes. Sadly, many do not. But all children are made more vulnerable by society’s violent discourse. The incessant angry and uncivil messages shared on social media, in the news, and in our conversations are pervasive…and our children are listening. Our children are listening, watching and absorbing what they see.
What we know for certain is that children who witness violence learn it and accept it as normal. Whether they adopt violent behaviors themselves or merely survive living in that environment, the exposure makes children immediately vulnerable to additional forms of violence and makes them especially susceptible to human trafficking. And this vulnerability follows them across their lifespan. In other words – what happens now is not merely relevant now. Quite the opposite, our choosing to live in violent discourse now has ramifications into adulthood and for generations to come. Violence is learned behavior that persists and can be passed generationally until the cycle is broken by hope and courage.
At AEHT, we are that hope and courage. Now more than ever, we must become active prevention advocates. We must seek complex, comprehensive prevention solutions to human trafficking, and that takes a great deal of work. But our starting point, our foundation, is quite simple – we start with our own compassionate and empathetic voice, and we remind those around us that our words and actions can serve to destroy, or they can serve to lift people up. Words and their context matter.
Focusing on changing the tone of our cultural narrative does not mean we shrink from acting on issues of justice; it does not water down our efforts to prevent and respond to human trafficking; it does not mean we remain silent or stop any of the vital work we do as AEHT. It means we lead the introduction of a new narrative, a return to civil discourse that is centered in love and respect. We remind individuals and communities that we are ultimately all in this together, and the vast majority of us share the common goals of safety, security and belonging for ourselves and our families. In the courageous spirit of St. Josephine Bakhita, let us build resilience together through love and listening. Let us model civility and unity. Let our voices bring us all to a place of grace where we share gratitude for the oft rocky paths that lead us home. Our children are listening. In the Spirit of St. Josephine Bakhita, let us sing them a song of resilience!
Laura Krausa
Board Member
Alliance to End Human Trafficking