Honorary degree for campaigning Sister Imelda
Catholic Voice - Middlesbrough Diocese - Provided by Vince Corcoran
A human rights activist and leading anti-slavery campaigner has been awarded an honorary degree from Liverpool Hope University. Sister Imelda Poole IBVM, who is well known from her time working in Port Clarence, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Liverpool Hope University at a graduation ceremony at Liverpool Cathedral.
She received the award in recognition of her internationally recognised work to combat human trafficking and her dedication to ending modern slavery through her roles with the Mary Ward Loreto Foundation and the charity she co-founded, Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation (RENATE).
Sister Imelda is president of the Mary Ward Loreto Foundation, a non-profit organisation aiming to eradicate human trafficking in Albania and the UK. The foundation provides immediate shelter and care to those rescued, while also running several programmes with highly vulnerable and exploited communities to prevent future trafficking.
Her dedication was recognised when she was awarded an MBE in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours List for her achievements and services to end modern slavery. Further recognition came in 2021 when she received the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Hero Award from the United States' State Department.
Sister Imelda said: "I was astonished to find out I had been recognised with this award. I am deeply honoured. This is an honour which I accept on behalf of the dedicated staff of Mary Ward Loreto In Albania and the many female religious and co-workers across Europe in the network RENATE. Together, combatting human trafficking can be made real. "May this privileged award highlight even further the terrible crime of human trafficking which, as Pope Francis has declared, is a crime against humanity itself."