Today I would like to dedicate these words to my children, our children, all human being, alive or dead, victim of human trafficking and trafficking in persons.

Somebody asked me few days ago: what is your inspiration that makes you so courageous? And my answer is that I am not courageous, but they are the center of all inspiration, the heroes of this story. Their cries make me deaf, their pain and wounds destroy my heart, the impotence in front of corruption and injustice makes me displaced, questions me, makes me committed, demands of me. There is no more space for indifference and commodity, I don’t belong anymore to myself, I belong to them, to the Church entrusted to me, to the children God gave me to take care of them. My life is them. I am not courageous but they waked in me the profound maternity and care. They are my inspiration and courage, the pure reflection of Trinity.

“I have something to tell you, mommy, and I hope that these pages won’t be a goodbye. Don’t abandon us, don’t leave us alone. If this God about whom you were talking wishes so, don’t abandon us. There are many who keep suffering. May there won’t be more who live this horror, don’t allow it. Mommy angel, even if you have to give your life, don’t allow it, don’t abandon us. If not, they will continue dying and noone will remember that we even exist”

When I received this note of one of my children, my heart of a mother told me that I needed to give them an answer, wherever they might be.

Today I would like to write to you and because of you, Mary and Joseph, beloved children of God and mine. To you and because of you, who are burdened with exploitation and indifference. To you and because of you, who the hand of an oppressor and proud is suffocating and destructing. To you and because of you, who is sold and exploited as an object, made one by the laws and “forms”. to you and because of you, who has no right to live, play, grow, study, be a woman or man free. To you and because of you, to whom the lies and games of some made disappeared, kidnapped. To you and because of you, who cries hopelessly and do not feel like being heard. To you and because of you, who has no more strength to fight, and your cry is silent. To you and because of you, who are dying without world knowing, who cry without being consoled. To you and because of you, who are prisoner of trafficants, entrepreneurs, buyers, who more than the human rights foment the culture of dehumanizing and exclusive merchandising. To you and because of you, who are obliged to do practices, forced matrimonies and unions without consent, to be a slave, to be a victim of violence and discrimination. To you and because of you, who is a victim of loneliness, who is involved in traps of virtual slavery and stil don’t know the danger you ar in. To you and because of you, who carry the blame that is not yours, because others made you believe that it’s your fault and made you forget that you are a victim, not the member of a big web of human trafficking.

In front of your unceasing plea and cries for help, in front of trembling tears of “don’t abandon me”, “don’t get tired”, “don’t leave us”, “there are still many”, I would like to give you this certainty, from my deepest truth. I would like you to know that maybe we are not many, but we are also not few, and we keep vigil, and we will keep vigilant for your rights, for your freedom, for your life. You are not alone, even if you can’t see it now, WE HAVE NOT AND WE WILL NOT ABANDON YOU. This is a promise.

I promise you to come as fast as we can, to insist in this war without surrender, to be a voice and a “disturbance” so that you won’t be forgotten. I promise you to fight for your liberation, and to make it happen soon. I promise you to fight for your death with dignity and not by the hands of “the monsters”. I swear to my life that I will never, ever, leave you. I promise you a life, in this earth, or in eternity, in heaven, but life of dignity, depth, care and love. I promise you respect, care, time, patience and, above all, dignity.

This is a war, a war of good against evil, and I promise you my life and my strength in this battle. And I am not alone, we are few, dispersed in the world, committed in this cause. Don’t be afraid, we won’t leave you. You will never again be alone. It is true that some may get tired and will feel tempted to abandon, and maybe even will do it. But I would like you to know that, come what may, there will always be some few struggling for you, so you may live free and happy.

I give you my life and I my all for love of you: my rest, my peace, my desires, my time, my will, my strengths, my tiredness, my dreams, my fears. I give it all and I give myself, to you and to all, even if it will consume me and I will lost everything. I want you to be happy, that noone will ever hurt you, or harm you, or kill you. I want you to live and to have the same right like me to live, to dream, to reconstruct your life, to be loved, to have a family and be embraced with warmth of a home. I will fight for your rights; your cause is mine, and mine and yours is the cause of God, an advice of a “good friend” in the journey.

“I would like to tell you something important, and I know you need to hear it. Forgive me, forgive us if we are late, for wasting our time in details without importance and forget that maybe because of this wasted time you are already without life, or you are suffering horribly, or you keep being abused, humiliated, wounded. Forgive me, because as congregational and ecclesial body we are not always answering, we are involved in indifference, we lack of commitment and sensibility. Forgive us, my child, although I know it won’t bring you back to life, forgive us. A part of me is going with you, with those dying every day, with this “debt” of not being able to do more. A part of me is dying because of your pain and loneliness. And believe, I will remain here, broken, in pieces, asking your forgiveness, loving you as strong as I can, embracing you, taking care for you, asking you every day: what else? And asking God to open new ways”

Here I am, your mommy angel, who loves you so much, together with these few who fight for you, suffer with you, embracing you and dying little by little every day with you, too.

I love you, never forget it. I’ll always do. This is our fight and here we are, standing firm. I swear to you.

 

Marcela Macagno CMT