Free The Girls is an international non-profit organisation that is devoted to supporting and empowering women who have been rescued from sex trafficking.
It’s a journey from horrific trauma through to social reintegration. Reintegration into the lives that survivors of sex trafficking were meant to live, with their families and within their communities.
Free The Girls’ ultimate mission is to offer these women true freedom, a goal that is measured by economic freedom, restored health, social well-being, education, and above all, the opportunity for a different, hopeful future.
Human trafficking and sexual exploitation are the key problems. To the women Free The Girls works with, “free” means the opposite of grave danger, destruction and slavery. Freedom stolen through human trafficking. The human trafficking and exploitation of more men, women and children across the world than ever before. An estimated 40 million people in fact.
Free The Girls partners with those who truly care about the victims of trafficking. Those who want to have an impact and make a real difference. Through running holistic reintegration programs and creating economic opportunity through the redistribution of bras, Free The Girls empowers female victims of human trafficking to change the trajectory of their lives.
Working with established aftercare programs in Mozambique, El Salvador and Costa Rica, Free The Girls is able to offer sex trafficking survivors unique opportunities to become an entrepreneur themselves, and thus providing a safe and reliable income for themselves.
Free The Girls works one-on-one with each budding entrepreneur, offering mentorship and teaching them key commercial skills such as inventory management, budgeting and financial planning. The overarching aim is to lead these women along the necessary path to achieving their goals and realising their dreams.
Good question. Well, bras are unique items that are proven, believe it or not, to have the power to bring freedom and hope to sex trafficking survivors!
In many parts of the world, bras tend to be taken for granted. Many women have dozens simply sitting in drawers, un-touched for long periods of time. However, by inviting “everyday abolitionists” to donate their gently used bras, Free The Girls is able to provide women with the initial inventory needed to launch their businesses. This is especially helpful given that bras are sought-after items in some developing nations and can therefore command higher prices.
By selling bras, women transition from survivors to respected entrepreneurs within their communities. This gives them a new identity, a welcome sense of safety and security, and the economic freedom to provide for themselves and their families.
