Sr. Nadine Buchanan, a native of Zanesville, Ohio, celebrates her Golden Jubilee this year. She made her perpetual profession in August of 1975 and initially served as an elementary parochial schoolteacher. She later served in hospice ministries. Eventually, she became a recognized anti-human trafficking advocate in Columbus, serving in this ministry for more than 16 years. She has been called an MVP by local judges and received many awards for her service in anti-human trafficking including the Ohio Liberators Award, the Living Faith Award, Mother Theresa and Soroptimist Club awards, and was named a finalist for the 2018 Everyday Heroes Award from the Dispatch Media Group. 

Sr. Nadine began addressing the human trafficking problem, in part, by helping victims involved in “Changing Actions To Change Habits” (C.A.T.C.H), a therapeutic jurisprudence program for re-offending prostitutes. She met victims at the jail when they were released, drove them to a rehabilitation center, and provided them with a support package of clean clothes and other items.  

Her service work grew beyond C.A.T.C.H., and she continued to volunteer with Freedom a la Cart, a Columbus cafe, bakery, and catering business which empowers survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation to build lives of freedom and self-sufficiency. 

She has literally taken it to the streets for “Save our Adolescents from Prostitution”  (SOAP), leaving bars of soap printed with the phone numbers of rescue agencies for victims at various hotels. She also loaded her car with food, clothes, and personal items to distribute in areas of the city where girls and women are sold and exploited. 

She developed her own outreach as a Dominican Sister of Peace on Columbus’ West Side. “I would just open my car door and offer them something to eat…there were so many victims that I felt they needed people whom they could feel safe with… women I encountered were both starved and barefoot …I would simply offer them something to eat, clothes, shoes and toiletries. Often, I would take women to the hospital for drug needle site infections.  

“If people that I have come in contact with now see me as helpful, then I can say I have and can make small differences in a problem as big as human trafficking.” 

“God has had a mantle around me, I know he helped me improve other’s situations. My life as a Sister is a calling. I knew since early on in my life I wanted to be a Sister, I’ve always had a strong sense of serving God.” 

“I pray this Jubilee Year of Hope helps each of us to renew within ourselves a desire to spread peace and justice with a greater effort especially to the marginalized among us.” 

Sr. Nadine Buchanan received a master's in education at The Ohio State University, her bachelor’s degree from Ohio Dominican University and obtained a National Chaplaincy Certification and is a member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. 

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