Summary: <a href="http://www.ruhama.ie/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Sarah Benson</a> is the CEO of <a href="https://twitter.com/RuhamaAgency" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Ruhama</a>.<br> The Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity were credited with founding Ruhama <a href="http://bit.ly/1Kqb2Wb" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">on Ruhama’s website up to February 2015</a>, but all <a href="http://bit.ly/1LHO5eY" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">references to</a> both <a href="http://bit.ly/1Kvwmqh" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">those orders</a> have been deleted from the pages of their website since, although some old annual report PDFs still mention them. Both <a href="http://bit.ly/1Wd0ejB" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">those orders have refused all compensation</a> to their victims. Both orders have <a href="http://bit.ly/1L0mYRP" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">flatly refused</a> to even meet victims’ groups.<br> The four orders who ran the Magdalene Laundries (of which Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity were two) <a href="http://bit.ly/1QSG6A7" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">made hundreds of millions of euro</a> from selling the laundry properties. Despite their wealth and their influence over Ruhama, <a href="http://www.ruhama.ie/about/funders/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">the bulk of Ruhama’s funding</a> comes from the taxpayer.<br> These orders have been condemned by, among others the UN; the <a href="http://bit.ly/1KvwW7a" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said</a> “Girls placed in the institutions were forced to work in slavery-like conditions and were often subject to inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment as well as to physical and sexual abuse”.<br> Headlines like “<a href="http://bit.ly/1QsFYGP" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Over 300 women affected by trafficking and prostitution needed help last year</a>” put high numbers alongside the concept of trafficked women in Ireland, however a closer reading of <a href="http://bit.ly/1KqgHeX" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Ruhama’s most recent annual report</a> reveal that in that year they first encountered “17 women [who] were suspected victims of sex trafficking” in 2013, my emphasis.<br>
