Thank you all so much for your support of Stop Traffick Fashion this year! Your purchases have allowed us to fulfill our mission: to be a boutique about restoration and change. From the start we promised that every item you buy will have a direct impact on the lives of exploited people around the world. Not only are our products made by survivors of human trafficking—giving them the means to gain confidence and support themselves. Additionally a portion of the STF’s revenue goes to organizations that work hands on rescuing and equipping victims of trafficking.
This year we’ve made donations to International Justice Mission and Hagar International.
International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
Hagar International is an international Christian organization committed to the recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration of women and children who have been victims of human rights abuse in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam. Hagar combines social programs and social businesses as an effective way of restoring women and children to wholeness. Hagar works with women and children from devastating backgrounds of violence, abuse and trafficking and enables them to be strong, resilient, and financially independent members of society once again.
Here’s what we were able to do this year—thanks to you. Following each item is a specific story of the impact IJM and Hagar have made this year.
- Three months of training to prepare one woman for work through Hagar.
When Bhoupa was 17, she received an offer too good to be true. A promised waitress job turned out to be life in a brothel. She escaped once, only to be returned. Finally set free, she still had no way to support herself. With Hagar, she chose to learn cosmetology. Now, Bhoupa runs her own salon, has recently married and is expecting her first child.
- Tuition for one child for one year through Hagar.
Taree came to Hagar after being systematically abused by a relative for a long time. She needed time to heal, and she also needed time to catch up in school, which she had rarely attended. After two years at Hagar’s “catch-up” school, she reached her age-appropriate grade level. Hagar helped her integrate into a Cambodian school. Now, Taree dreams of becoming a doctor.
- State-of-the-art undercover equipment that enables IJM investigators to make life-saving rescues.
In Chennai, India IJM workers were able to free a family from rice mill slavery, based on the father’s courageous testimony. “The freed slaves gathered with IJM staff outside the government office. On the realization that he and his family were now free, a wide smile broke out across Kushan’s face, the weight of the past three years falling away. Touching his daughter’s leg gently, he turned to his wife and smiled.”
- Fees to cover one IJM client’s case to trial.
This December, International Justice Mission helped convict seven traffickers in Mumbai, India. “Convictions like these are critical to change the “fear equation” in Mumbai—ensuring that perpetrators are rightly afraid of the just consequences of the law, so the vulnerable do not need to fear them.”
This global problem is overwhelming, but we can work together to take small steps toward big change.
