A local activist who has been fighting on behalf of survivors of clergy abuse is heading to Europe to attend UN meetings and meet with Vatican officials

Gemma Hickey, who received one of the country’s first gender-neutral passports, was in Rome last year during the first-ever Papal Summit on clergy sexual abuse.

Hickey met with other Canadian survivors and formed a national network in order to hold the Catholic Church in Canada to account.

Members of the group will join Hickey in Geneva and Rome this week.

Hickey founded Pathways, an organization that offers support to religious institutional abuse survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador.

They’re heading to Europe on Wednesday and will return on the 23rd.