It’s not an easy path to employment when you are escaping years of trauma and abuse. Friends of Basha is a non-profit initiative that provides the support, care and services needed for women thrive. We provide training, counselling, children’s programmes, medical care and more. Women are empowered to live lives free from exploitation and to give their children a bright future.
This case explores the root causes that make women vulnerable to trafficking — from poverty and lack of education to systemic inequality and coercion. By understanding these drivers, we can develop better solutions to prevent exploitation before it begins.
Creating a safe space for girls is paramount. We run a hostel for girls who used to fend for themselves on the street. When we tried to find other homes for them, they were determined to be too old to help, too far past education, too set in their ways.
Friends of Basha’s daycare programme provides daily educational activities and tutoring catered to the age of the child. More than 130 children receive healthy, high protein food twice a day in addition to meals with their families.
Our training program provides women time to heal as well as receive training that will last a lifetime. Receiving a monthly allowance allows women to completely cut ties with their abusers and begin to learn the skills to sustain themselves.
We don’t define health just in the physical, we know that to flourish again, we must care for all parts of our body and mind. Through medical care, we ensure women are physically healthy and when a crisis emerges, we do our best to cover medical emergencies.
We work hard to make sure women and families have the support and encouragement they need to successfully rebuild their lives. We built a daycare programme and girls’ hostel to make sure that these children don’t face the same vulnerabilities and exploitation that led their mothers to us. Many children come to us malnourished and not enrolled in school. Some were fending for themselves on the streets, working long hours or sold to a brothel as children themselves.
Why do we exist and how are we different from Basha Boutique? Why do women end up trafficked?
Friends of Basha exists to support the holistic restoration journey of women and children escaping trafficking and abuse. While Basha Boutique provides employment and skills training, Friends of Basha focuses on the deeper needs—safe housing, trauma counseling, education, and long-term care.
We stand beside survivors as they rebuild their lives with dignity and hope, addressing the root causes of trafficking such as poverty, lack of education, and social vulnerability.
Poverty is not simply a lack of decent employment. It starts with little to no education, not getting enough food, leading to preventable diseases. Unable to provide their children with anything different, the cycle repeats.
Bangladesh has made strides in gender equality in recent years, but the fact remains that everyone wants sons. Sons are the ones that support their parents in adulthood, while daughters require an expensive dowry for marriage and contribute to her in-laws instead.
Any stain on a girl’s reputation can follow her into her future. Sexual harassment, unwanted suitors, rape, or human trafficking mean a girl is seen as dirty and no longer respected in society.
Start a campaign to help us change more lives. Every day, women and children fall victim to trafficking due to poverty, lack of education, and broken family systems. Your campaign can raise awareness, fund safe shelter, provide education, and restore dignity to survivors. Stand with us and be a voice for the voiceless—together, we can break the cycle of exploitation.
This photo showcase explores the complex realities behind why women and children become victims of trafficking. Through powerful imagery and real-life stories, it reveals the vulnerabilities, systemic inequalities, and deceptive practices that lead to exploitation—raising awareness and inspiring action for change.
