On December 16, 2023, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Progetto Miriam, our ministry that shelters trafficked women in Padua, Italy. The event opened with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by Bishop Claudio Cipolla. Following this, we presented a slideshow and testimonies of people who have helped and shared in this important ministry, which has involved some 20 Franciscan Sisters of the Poor over the years.
All the people involved, although different in experience and sensibility, recounted the same feeling, that of “living in a family, in a place that you can call home, made of care and Franciscan simplicity.”
Progetto Miriam was born in response to an appeal made by the Bishop of Padua in 1994 to the consecrated women of the diocese to help the many foreign women on the street who were being sexually exploited. The exploitation was clear and dangerous, but at the time there were no laws to protect these women.
Since 1998, trafficked women who wish to exit from their situation and denounce their exploiters have been able to ask for a social protection residence permit. In that same year, we were able to initiate this project with the opening of a house to guarantee such women adequate protection. What led to the start and growth of Progetto Miriam was a strong spirit of collaboration and networking among many social services in the area, which provided and still provides multidisciplinary, quality assistance to re-integrate these women with dignity into the Italian social context.
The lives and relationships built over these 25 years are much more than just numbers. At Progetto Miriam, more than 300 women have been hosted to date, but many more have been looked after, listened to, accompanied, and helped in their homes or on the street or hosted in other facilities of collaborators in our network.
The interculturality we experience is extremely challenging and gives us a beautiful openness to the world. The international, globally interconnected events are also reflected in our daily reality. In the first 10 years many trafficked women came from Eastern European countries, especially Romania, Moldova, and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Since the beginning of 2000, many women have come from Nigeria, and in recent years, the number of women from Asia, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, and other African countries is growing.
What encourages us to move forward is the great opportunity for these women to build a future for themselves, because most of them are very young: between 18 and 25 years old. Some even arrive in Italy as minors.
Their stays vary from a few weeks to more than a year. It is a journey made of patience, waiting, listening and deep CARE, a care that becomes attention, welcome, presence, sometimes words of encouragement and correction, sometimes only silence; a care that becomes expectation and certainty that a small seed will sprout and grow, like a little plant…
All the women who are hosted need to put their lives back in order, take charge of them again, and steer them for their own good on a long journey toward self-awareness and self-determination. We accompany them, day after day, through those choices that slowly lead them to autonomy, strengthening their self-esteem and self-confidence.
Within the house there is a beautiful workshop of handmade objects for party favors and small decorations, which has an important educational role in the women’s journey, helping them to rediscover beauty in general but especially their ability to make beautiful and new things, to be protagonists, and to be creative.
Several volunteers and young people are also involved in Progetto Miriam. They help us to create positive relationships and make us more and more aware of how important it is to make people aware of this phenomenon that is still so present and little known.
These are all resources to grow together, to fully live our Charism of caring, to generate new life around us, and to continue this journey that has taken us far for 25 years.
Sr. Carla and Sr. Gabriella, Sfp
