At the end of June 2018, she has been awarded the prestigious “Hero of the Year” award by the US State Department for her commitment to the fight against human trafficking.
A former victim of human trafficking and forced to prostitution in Italy, Blessing is a young woman from Nigeria who had the courage to report her exploiters and restart her life as a cultural mediator. She works between Italy and Nigeria, trying to prevent other women from becoming the victims of human trafficking and supporting those who have fallen into that trap: often very young and unprepared women, reduced to slavery for sexual exploitation.
There are very few people like her who have chosen to put their lives on the line and to try to accompany those who wish to return to Nigeria to their places of origin, thanks to a project of assisted repatriations promoted by the Slaves no More Association.
Blessing Okoedion has also published the book “Il Coraggio della libertà (The Courage of Freedom) (published by Paoline) with the journalist Anna Pozzi.
( 2016 )