Informed consumers can end slavery

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Launch of slavery free toolkit.14 February 2020

The Make Your School Slavery-free resource kit has been officially launched by Archbishop Peter A Comensoli at Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy.

Developed out of a collaboration between Catholic Education Melbourne, ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans) and the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, the Make Your School Slavery-free resource kit is an online tool to help schools make changes to the supply chain, which assist in liberating some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

The launch, hosted by Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy, with representatives from Aquinas College, Ringwood, and St Pius X School, Heidelberg West, began with a liturgy led by Archbishop Peter focused on the importance of making deliberate choices that free people from slavery and exploitation. It is estimated that over 40 million people globally are trapped in slavery or slavery-like conditions – one in four of them a child. Some of these are trafficked into slavery and others forced to work in appalling conditions for a pittance.

‘It’s people who are being traded. It’s not chocolate, it’s not coffee, but it’s people’, said Sr Louise Cleary CSB from ACRATH. ‘Education can help to stop this. This kit is one of the ways we can become informed consumers.’

To share a story on making your school slavery-free or for more information, please contact Catholic Education Melbourne via antislavery@cem.edu.au.