Human Trafficking Awareness Month 2020
Human Trafficking affects MILLIONS of men, women & children around the world
We know of this tragic issue, but are often left wondering what difference we can really make against this global criminal industry.
Since 2007, we have worked to bring hope of a better tomorrow to young women and girls. When you offer a woman a job doing dignified work, she takes her first steps towards a future that is her own, where she is truly free.
“My first day there felt surreal. There was laughter. So much laughter. Other women with stories similar to mine sat together making jewelry. Initially, I was worried that I would never be able to create such beautiful products, but my supervisor asked one of the women who had been around the longest to teach me. We started with a simple design, and by the end of the week I too was laughing at the table as I worked.”
- Joyce*, an artisan in our Kampala Sanctuary
The challenge of healing survivors of human trafficking is addressed through four core components: income, education, health, and community.
Healing from trauma is a multi-year process with two steps forward and one step back.
Frustrating, painful, difficult, hopeful, and joyful, the journey is long but worth every moment. That’s why we at International Sanctuary and PURPOSE Jewelry focus on holistic care, providing community, education, job training and a path forward to our participants who all have their own stories. Financial independence, hope, dignity and freedom give these women and girls a future and the knowledge that they can take care of themselves and and strive for independence.
Millions of women around the world do not know that the doors to their future are just waiting to be opened. Facing the difficulties of severe poverty, illiteracy and cultural devaluation, leaves them more susceptible to being exploited and re-exploited by traffickers. When International Sanctuary entered the fight, we found a gap between the assistance given to girls and women in aftercare homes and reintegration into the workplace. We work to fill that gap by providing a loving workplace where women enter a community of trust, encouragement and empowerment.
Our program provides steady income for women to support themselves and their families, and the incorporation of education, health and community build the foundation for each woman to form belonging, self-efficacy and learning how to give and receive love from themselves.
We walk along these individuals on their journey offering help, not handouts, because empowerment is about knowing that you have the efficacy to care for yourself.
When you support International Sanctuary, you help open the doors for women and girls around the world.