November 2023 Event: Sex Trade and Human Trafficking in Ireland

Mia de Faoite is a survivor activist with over 10 years experience working as a campaigner and policy advisor on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation. She is the Training Lead at Ruhama, Ireland’s national NGO which supports women affected by prostitution, sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.

Mia was a core member of the leadership team of the successful Turn Off the Red Light campaign which led to Ireland adopting End Demand legislation in 2017. She was the Campaign Coordinator of the Beyond Exploitation campaign until moving to work as the Training Lead with Ruhama.

Mia talked about who Ruhama are and what they do and explored what the sex trade looks like in Ireland today, explaining some of the complexities around human trafficking including legislation and discussed the harsh realities of the sex trade itself.

Mia found it an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with members of the Humanist Society.  She had hoped that it was a place where there is a wonder and a longing to understand the big questions about humanity and she wasn’t disappointed. There were profound but extremely thoughtful questions posed to her and she was able to answer them because she could sense the empathy from the members. She truly hopes that the talk went some way to explain an all too often misunderstood issue. Her wish was always to put a human face on prostitution because before we are anything we are human. Special thanks to Michael for the support, she is glad that the Society has such a wonderful voice.

You can watch the Podcast here on YouTube