ACRATH

04/10/2026

Because the conversation does not end with this great campaign.

After nearly 10 years, we are retiring the What She Makes campaign, and it has been an incredible journey. Together, we’ve helped shift the conversation around living wages and pushed Australian brands to make commitments and take action towards paying the women who make our clothes a living wage.

That’s something worth celebrating. And remembering.

But while this campaign is ending, the issue isn’t.

Many workers are still not earning enough to afford a decent standard of living, and too many brands have yet to make living wages a reality across their supply chains.

So, as we close this chapter, we have one last ask:

Share this post and tag a brand you want to see continue to act on living wages.

Because this conversation doesn’t end when the campaign does.

01/10/2026

Traditional short-term aid cycles routinely fail to address the complex, deeply rooted realities of human trafficking.

At Devex Impact House @ UNGA81, Sister Sarah Puls, national executive officer of ACRATH, and Sister Gertrude Elelegu of Bakhita St. Louis Empowerment Network joined Devex co-founder and Executive Vice President Alan Robbins to explore how locally rooted organizations build enduring systems of survivor support.

Connected through the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative, the leaders detailed how sisters’ permanent presence within communities fosters the profound trust required to facilitate comprehensive care, family tracing, and repatriation alongside institutions.

Emphasizing the necessity of sustained funding for grassroots actors, Puls noted, "Aid money comes and goes. Aid organizations sometimes come and go. But people who are in the communities are there."

Read the full discussion ➡️ https://dvx.cm/8t2yx8

01/10/2026

See ACRATH Community Development Worker Joseph Dunn’s review of Ryan Butta’s "Blackbirding: A Reckoning with the Australian Slave Trade" (Simon & Schuster), featured in Eureka Street!

Australia had abolished slavery. So how did we justify 'blackbirding'?

Joseph writes, "A major theme throughout the book is captured in a phrase Butta borrows from Tracey Banivanua-Mar: “engineered forgetting”. It describes a conscious effort to excise a group of people from history. That may sound conspiratorial, but Butta shows that the process is often much more mundane. For those whose reputations depend on forgetting, it involves sanitising the facts, emphasising the good and excising the bad. Equally insidious, however, are those who simply neglect the truth: a report left unreleased, a petition unanswered, a law unenforced or an injustice ignored.

Within our organisation ACRATH, education has always been a large part of confronting human trafficking and modern slavery. Our volunteers and staff visit schools, parishes, businesses, clubs, and anywhere else that will have us to speak about modern slavery: where it exists in our world and our supply chains, and what can be done to combat it."

Read more:

Slavery was illegal, yet Pacific Islanders were kidnapped, deceived and put to work in Australia. Ryan Butta’s history shows how contracts, failed inquiries and the demand for cheap labour kept the trade alive for decades.

26/09/2026

Read about ACRATHs work at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Catholic sisters bring fight to end human trafficking to U.N. General Assembly America Magazine - The Jesuit Review

Gertrude Elelegu, S.S.L., of Nigeria and Sarah Puls, S.G.S., of Australia have devoted many years to mitigating the global scourge of human trafficking and restoring the people traumatized by their experiences in this shadow world.

24/09/2026

See Executive Officer Sr. Sarah Puls in meaningful conversation with Sr. Gertrude Elelegu at the United Nations General Assembly session, "Catholic Sisters on the Frontlines: Scaling Local Leadership in Development."

🖱Devex link to watch the discussion, which offered valuable perspectives on ACRATH's anti-trafficking and modern slavery prevention work in Oceania and Sr. Elelegu's work in Nigeria, and featured practical, grassroots, and forward-looking conversations.

Thank you to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation for making this conversation possible, amplifying our crucial work and the voices of victims/survivors/treasures.

Devex

22/09/2026

The free Modern slavery and ethical sustainability module is designed to support students and professionals across a range of disciplines and sectors, including business, procurement, environmental studies, engineering and construction.

Access it now at
https://acrath.org.au/resources/educating-for-change/

University Adelaide University

22/09/2026

Executive Officer Sr Sarah Puls is representing ACRATH this week at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 81) in New York!

On Day Two, Sr Sarah attended the Her Power Summit: Sustaining Action for Women, together with Sr Gertrude Elelegu. They heard inspiring stories and ideas about how to join forces to support women’s health, rights, and leadership worldwide.

She also joined the NGA Healing Arts Changing Minds Film Festival.

📸Photos: Sr Sarah & Sr Gertrude,
Maureen Gainer-Reilly, Sr Sarah, Sr Gertrude, and Lora Ricca at the Healing Arts event.

21/09/2026

We welcomed recent feedback for our newest module: Modern slavery and ethical sustainability.

Access it here: https://modernslavery-ed4change.acrath.org.au/sustainability/ #/

Flinders University Adelaide University

21/09/2026

During United Nations General Assembly Week, Vital Voices has invited ACRATH Executive Officer Sr. Sarah Puls, SGS, to join a group of women leaders whose bold actions are transforming communities and advancing change worldwide.

We know Sarah will be in good company, as the convening brings together leaders who share personal stories and candid conversations while exploring how women turn conviction into action, confront systems that perpetuate injustice, and create meaningful change in their communities and beyond.

For more information, see: https://www.vitalvoices.org/news-articles/event/vital-voices-leadership-talks-women-transforming-the-world-through-courage-and-action-unga-at-dvf-studio-in-nyc/

17/09/2026

We are at United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum in Bangkok.

Today we partnered with St Vincent's Health Australia leading a session: “Forced, Tricked or Trapped” to “Seen, Safe, Supported”: A healthcare-led, survivor-centred model for identifying and responding to modern slavery.

More insights to come