January is the National Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Have you ever wondered why some products are so cheap?  Be aware of the origin of your cheap purchased items.  Someone could be suffering from forced labor, sweatshops, and child labor.  This is what we call social injustices, trade injustices, and most of all human slavery.  Not all of these laborers may even receive wages for their work.  Items with a mark of fair trade may be pricey but it gives you an assurance, that you are not supporting a human trafficking business.  

January 2025 is the National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. President Biden calls upon organizations, families, and American people to recognize our duty in ending human trafficking.  By observing this month as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, given the programs and events to end all forms of human trafficking, we are on our way to liberating people from this modern-day slavery and preventing it from happening to those who are at risk.  You may not know who is at risk, so do not take the chance.  Do not let the traffickers take away one's dignity.

Human Trafficking is a $150 billion money-making industry.  The United States is a significant destination for trafficked victims.  This is happening before our eyes using the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and services we patronize, among other things. 

If you would like to support this advocacy of ending human trafficking, you can wear blue, post it on your social media using the #WearBlueDay (hashtagWearblueDay) and share your photo with us jpic.office@gmail.com so we can feature you in our JPIC social media.  You can participate in this blue campaign, particularly on January 11 which is dedicated for National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Read more: 

Slavery Footprint
Alliance to End Human Trafficking - Ending Slavery is Everyone's Work : Alliance to End Human Trafficking
The Fight Against Human Trafficking | Global Sisters Report
Talithakum
National Human Trafficking Prevention Month 2025 - Preventing and Addressing Child Trafficking Project
Interfaith Toolkit to End Trafficking | UNICEF USA
A Proclamation on National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2025 | The White House
DPS Recognizes Human Trafficking Prevention Month | Department of Public Safety

"Hatred is a contagious and destructive disease," Presentations coming to San Antonio the week of Feb. 16, 2025

 

 The daughters on the beach.  Now Daughters for Life Foundation honors them. 

PROGRAM DATES AND TIME LISTED AT THE BOTTOM. 

A global expert on “Hatred as a Contagious and Destructive Disease” will be brought to San Antonio by the founders of the first public hospital in the city in 1869.  When ten percent of the population of San Antonio had died of contagious diseases, the mayor begged for help and the Incarnate Word Sisters responded starting Santa Rosa Hospital. In that tradition of care for life, the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Office of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. Sisters hosts Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Professor in the Global Health Division - Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

Prof. Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Palestinian Canadian physician and an internationally recognized human rights and inspirational peace activist devoted to advancing health and educationa lopportunities for women and girls in the Middle East. Prof.  Izzeldin Abuelaish was born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. Through his work, he has experienced firsthand the impacts of conflict in countries like Palestine, Egypt, Israel, Uganda, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. His experience working as both an insider and outsider to conflict has led him to believe that doctors are particularly well-poised to serve as peacemakers, based on the moral doctrine of their profession. Health and medicine are human equalizers, socializers, harmonizers and stabilizers.

Dr. Abuelaish (third from the right) with San Antonio people who attended the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates where he spoke. 

Prof. Abuelaish has overcome many personal hardships, including poverty, violence, and the horrific tragedy of his three daughters’ and niece’s deaths in the 2009 Gaza War. He continues to live up to the description bestowed upon him by an Israeli colleague, as a “magical, secret bridge between Israelis and Palestinians” and in the world. He is now one of the most outspoken, prominent, and beloved researchers, educators and public speakers on peace and development in the Middle East. He holds twenty honorary doctorates and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times.

Elis Wiesel, Nobel Peace Laureate, wrote of Dr. Abuelaish book, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, "This story is a necessary lesson against hatred and revenge."

 

Dr. Abuelaish with Teo Reyes, Assistant Director of the UIW Center for Civic Leadership and Sustainability named for Sister Dot Ettling. 

As President Jimmy Carter put it, “In this book, Dr. Abuelaish has expressed a remarkable commitment to forgiveness and reconciliation that describes the foundation for a permanent peace in the Holy Land.”

The book shares the doctor’s life story as a Gazan doctor growing up in a refugee camp, persisting in getting educated, obtaining a degree, securing a position in an Israeli hospital and continuously crossing from Gaza to Israel. During this time he grew in recognizing the humanity of Israelis, developing his faith as a Muslim, and establishing his own family in Gaza.

Then, on January 16, 2009, he suffered horrendous loss when an Israeli tank shelled his home, killing three of his daughters and a niece, only months after having lost his wife to disease.

Despite this horrendous pain and grief, Dr. Abuelaish did not seek revenge or harbor hatred for those who were responsible for the deaths of his daughters and niece, and so many others. He started the foundation Daughters for Life to help educate young women of the Middle East. About – Daughters for Life Foundation.  He emphasizes that educated women are needed as leaders to help create a more justice and peaceful future.  The Incarnate Word Sisters firmly believe in the importance of education and leadership training for girls and women.

Dr. Abuelaish with Jacky Zaval Aguila of the UIW Office of Research and Graduate Studies. 

We bring Dr. Abuelaish with the hope that women from the Middle East will have increased opportunities to share their voices, participate and learn.

Presentations: 

Feb. 17, Monday

All gatherings on Feb. 17, 10:30 am to 9 pm and Feb. 18, 9 am to 5 pm will be in the UIW Student Engagement Center Ballroom and livestreamed for those in other places.

10:30 to 11:15 am Dr. Abuelaish on "Hate as a contagious and destructive disease" with discussion 

12 noon  Part of the recent documentary "I Shall Not Hate"  and time for questions with Dr. Abuelaish.

1:30 pm. Abuelaish on "Hate as a contagious and destructive disease" with discussion 

3 pm. Part of the recent documentary "I Shall Not Hate"  and time for questions with Dr. Abuelaish.

5:45 pm. Buffet Benefit Dinner.  Lift a Daughter--for Life.  Help build a San Antonio Scholarship for a Middle Eastern Woman through the Daughters for Life Foundation which was founded by Dr. Abuelaish. Registration required. Free parking on the UIW campus west of the Student Engagement Center.

7 pm.  Panel of Health Care Professionals on Hate as a Disease.  Free and open to the public, no registration required. Dr. Junda Woo, City’s Medical Director/Public Health. Dr. Abuelaish. Some of the other invited panelist:  Dr. Kenneth Kemp, Antioch Baptist, both MD and clergy. Dr. Moshtagh Farokhi UT Health Dentistry. Dr. Cathy Woodward, who was in Pediatrics at UT Health.  Dr. Jason Morrow, University Hospital.  Dr. Adam Ratner, School of Osteopathic Medicine, UIW. 

Feb. 18, Tuesday, 9 am Dr. Abuelaish on "Hate as a contagious and destructive disease" with discussion 

10:30 am  Part of the recent documentary "I Shall Not Hate"  and time for questions with Dr. Abuelaish.

12 noon . Abuelaish on "Hate as a contagious and destructive disease" with discussion 

1:30 pm. Part of the recent documentary "I Shall Not Hate"  and time for questions with Dr. Abuelaish.

3 pm  Dr. Abuelaish on "Hate as a contagious and destructive disease" with discussion 

Feb. 18, 6:30 to 8:30 pm CHRISTUS Heritage Hall at the Village at Incarnate Word.    Lift a Daughter--for Life.  Help build a San Antonio Scholarship for a Middle Eastern Woman through the Daughters for Life Foundation which was founded by Dr. Abuelaish. Delicious Middle Eastern food, music. Dr. Abuelaish speaking.  Learn of  Our Scholars – Daughters for Life Foundation  Registration required. Students can request scholarships. For information, write   kirk@uiwtx.edu 

Feb. 19, Wednesday, 9 to 10:15 am. UIW Mabee Library Auditorium.Dr. Abuelaish presents on "Hatred as a Contagious and Destructive Disease"   

 Possibilities at Peace Center at Northwest Vista College.  The Rotary Club. 

Feb. 19, Wednesday, Executive Book Review, "I Shall Not Hate" by Dr. Abuelaish, 5:30 PM at CHRISTUS Heritage Hall at the Village at Incarnate Word. Please register https://executivebookreview.com/  

Feb. 20, Thursday    @TheIntersection; 8-8:30 AM virtual. For the link, please write Ann Helmke (DHS): Ann.Helmke@sanantonio.gov

Feb. 20  Possibilities at Northwest Vista 

Dr. Abuelaish's book, I Shall Not Hate is available at The Twig Bookstore at the Pearl. 

Contact: Sister Martha Ann Kirk kirk@uiwtx.edu  210-883-5934

Jesus Christ in the Rubble: A Cold Manger in Our Time

It has been 452 days since the war in Gaza erupted.   Statistics are shocking.  More than half of the fatalities are women and children among more than 45,000 of them in total, buried in the graves, buried in the rubbles of Gaza, or whose body lying on the ground waiting.  What the human race is losing, the longer this war takes, are lives, and the value of humanity.  People have mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, children, friend, etc.  Suddenly, by the strike of a missile or bomb, their loved one is gone.  In some cases, their loved ones are gone.   

When will this war be over?  I sometimes think, without weapons, people will not die that easily in masses.  I asked myself several times what can I do when I am here?  The Palestinians in Gaza died not only because of weapons, bombs, or missiles.  Technically, these weapons killed the majority of them.  The billion-dollar business of manufacturing weapons is an infrastructural and social sin.  It feeds families, puts children to school, and puts food on the table.  Those are not the reason for infrastructural sin but those instruments are used to kill in the battlefield.  The battlefield is in Gaza with people who are innocents.  These businesses are instruments to these thousands of fatalities.  For people to act on justice, we have to face the reality.  The people of Gaza are not only dying from starvation, injuries, lack of medical attention, cold, but indifference to stop the instruments from being used to kill the people.

On Christmas, Rev. Munther Isaac of the Lutheran church in Bethlehem in Gaza, spoke of Jesus in the rubble.  One-third of the victims are children and there are still children who are suffering from starvation.  Palestinians have been a witness of historical persecution, and discrimination. He talked about how the United States commercialized Christmas, displaying staggering lights.  People spend money and time on gifts, sometimes unnecessary while the country continues to send bombs and weapons to Israel.  Israel is by far the biggest recipient of military aid from United States.  Palestinian armed groups including Hamas took hostages indiscriminately while Israel also cut off electricity in Gaza.  Now, there have been 1.9 million displaced Palestinians with more than 45,000 killed and more as the people are under the rubbles of buildings struck down by missiles, thousands of people who have been amputated, disabled, and facing a dire threat of famine every day.  We know the story.  We can see this in the news from all media, conversations, and movements in universities, organizations, communities, etc.  Has this genocide been normalized and this war still continues to perpetrate before the eyes of world?

It has been more than one year since Israel defended itself against the Hamas attack.  People have left their homes forcedfully.  These people have been displaced several times.  Some are living on the streets or in tents.  On the other side of this complex situation, we, the faithful are praying for the nation's leaders to consider the immediate ceasefire, reconciliation, diplomatic talks, and arms embargo.

As a people of faith, we bring light to the world.  The following are just a few of the things that you can do to help with the situation in Gaza.

1. Write a letter to President, contact congressmen/representatives regularly about ceasefire, arms embargo and support humanitarian works.   
2. Write a letter regarding the concerns on US military support to Israel and call for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid access to editors to newspapers you are subscribed to.  You can refer to this guide if needed.
3. Be aware of the companies benefiting from the war and the occupation.  AFSC's investigation on the matter is here.
4. Be aware of what is happening.  Free ebooks on understanding the Gaza here.
5. Raise awareness in social media and with your friends and family and write a blog about the situation Gaza
6. Support humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Palestinian Children Relief Fund, the United Nations Relief and Workers Agency (UNRWA), United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations World Food Programme,  Women for Women International, International Rescue Committee

Incarnate Word Sisters' Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) is coming up with an event soon to bring the Palestinian Canadian Physician, Dr. Abuelaish, a human rights and international peace activist, for a speaking engagement.  He lost three of his daughters, and niece in one incident to an Israeli shelling that hit his residence in Gaza.  He lost other relatives to this conflict.  Regardless of this painful situation, he continues to work for peace.  In his book "I Shall Not Hate", he exposed hatred as a contagious and destructive disease.  

We are eagerly looking forward to having you at this event to create a more just and peaceful world.  We are interested in hearing from you.  If you are interested in collaborating and supporting the event, please drop JPIC an email (jpic.office@gmail.com) or reach out to Sr. Martha Ann Kirk (kirk@uiwtx.edu).

• Demand a ceasefire by all parties to end civilian suffering - Amnesty International
• Tell Congressman to embargo arms, and weapons used in Gaza conflict.
• NBC News | Two young brothers in search of food join the crowds waiting outside the only functioning bread shop left in Khan Younis in Gaza. More at... | Instagram
• Donate to Help Children in West Bank and Gaza | Save The Children
• PCRF
• UNICEF, for every child
• UN World Food Programme (WFP)
• Palestine | Women For Women
• Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) | International Rescue Committee (IRC)
• Christ in the Rubble preach

Christ in the Rubble in Lutheran Church, Bethlehem on Christmas