A letter from Sister Mary John Paul Chao, smsm:
Thank you for your interest in the Nancy's Hero Award of August 16, 2019. Nancy O'Malley is the District Attorney of Alameda County where I live. It's a large county of about 2 million people spanning the whole East Bay from Albany and Berkeley in the north all the way to Milpitas border in the south. The California senate bill 1193 requires 13 kinds of businesses, such as massage parlors, hotels, bars, emergency rooms, etc. to have a large poster against human trafficking in 3 prominent languages of each county and the national hotline and texting hotline. The purpose is to allow victims to easily remember the numbers to seek help. The police would respond quickly to rescue them. Those states that have this law show a significant increase in arrests and prosecutions/convictions of traffickers as well as rescues of victims.
The Sisters' coalition decided to take up the challenge, but it turned out not to be easy. I am the only sister who lives in Alameda County, and the other Sisters live in San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and San Joaquin county (situated west and south of the San Francisco Bay). After struggling many months, I was the only sister who got the project going with the help of the District Attorney's office in Oakland City. I have visited all 11 cities and towns - about 850 businesses. I try to get a volunteer man or woman to go with me. Some areas are very dangerous where daily shootings take place and the businesses have bullet-proof glass between the owner and us. Nancy O'Malley was very grateful, so she wrote to me to offer this Nancy's Hero Award. I was shocked, because I had never thought my bar hopping would bring an award! I told her that I belonged to this Sisters' coalition, so she also offered the award to the other Sisters even though they hadn't done this project. They had done a number of other projects in other counties. So, on August 16, I was asked to give the acceptance speech (see picture). Three other sisters came. In my speech, I did mention some other projects the other sisters had done. I also brought my top volunteers (who had visited 50+ businesses). I thank God for inspiring me and the volunteers to work to fight this cruel crime of human trafficking. Since the victims live, on the average, for only 7 years after being trafficked, I feel it's worth all the work to save even one person. May God strengthen all of us who fight human trafficking.
