Thread by @BeqaYiakl

Today’s #Yiakl #SundaySpotlight goes out to Sister Azezet “Aziza” Kidane in acknowledgement of her heroic work in exposing the Sinai torture camps and positively impacting the lives of human trafficking victims.

#Eritrea2020 #SundaySpotlight
#Yiakl #WeAreComingHome

Sr. Azezet Habtezghi Kidane, also known as Sister Aziza, is an #Eritrean nun in the Comboni Missionary Sisters, human trafficking activist and a volunteer as a nurse for the NGO Physicians for Human Rights Open Clinic in Israel. #Eritrea

Sister Azezet, spend almost 20 years working as a nurse in #Sudan and #Ethiopia. Over the course of two years, from 2010 through 2012, she began to focus her attention on what was happening in the Sinai: the horrific torture and enslavement of asylum-seekers. #Eritrea

Sr. Azezet first learned of Sinia when she started volunteering at Open Clinic in Tel Aviv. She became so alarmed of #Eritrea|n refugees physical torture, sexual harassment, forced starvation & dehydration. She found the stories to be too horrific, too graphic & too unimaginable.

Sister Azezet “began building a database documenting the instances of torture camps for Physicians for Human Rights, the Israeli NGO running Open Clinic, which also deals with political rights for minority populations in Israel.” #Eritrea

“For two and a half years, two days a week, she would sit in a small office in their Open Clinic and hear testimony from the depths of the human abyss. She took testimony from up to ten people a day, speaking with a total of 1,500 African refugees.“
globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry-…

Sr. Azezet’s reports were compiled by the Physicians for Human Rights and passed to Israeli police, US Department of State, the European Union & the United Nations. This was the first time anyone had documented the existence of the camps in the Sinai targeting refugees. #Eritrea

Sister Azezet’s reporting on human rights abuses quickly gained international attention. In June 2012, she was awarded -Trafficking in Persons Report Hero- by @HillaryClinton, then US Secretary of State. #Eritrea

Sister Azezet now works to provide professional therapy, cultural & pastoral knowledge to refugees in Israel. Azezet co-founded Kuchinate, African Refugee Women's collective together with Dr. Diddy Mymin Kahn. This collective provides economic, psychological & social empowerment.

Thank You Sister Azezet for being the voice to #Eritrea|n refugees everywhere. Your contribution to bringing refugees stories into international stage is greatly appreciated. You are an inspiration!

FB: facebook.com/azezet.kidane

#Yiakl #WeAreComingHome