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
Women who are trafficked or vulnerable to trafficking are eager to leave behind the trauma of their past and build better lives for themselves and their children. But it’s not an easy journey to transition into a different future. Both the complexity of poverty, and the many layers of trauma, need addressing first. It takes a smart intervention to break the cycle of trafficking for good.
Friends of Basha exists to respond to the unique needs of these communities in Bangladesh and to ensure women are whole and healthy before they transition into the workforce. We provide full holistic support, like counselling and psychiatric care, as well as life skill training and a safe home for women and girls to live in. The next generation is equally important to Friends of Basha, as we believe in providing children the opportunities their mothers did not have. More than 120 children receive education in Basha’s daycare centres, as well as daily tutoring, school support and nutritious food.
When ready, women have the opportunity to be employed by our social enterprise partner, Basha Boutique. Here, we see the full cycle broken, as women take on full-time employment in an environment that fosters their entrepreneurial spirits. Basha Boutique has grown from 13 women in one small Dhaka flat to more than 150 full-time production workers in five production centres throughout Bangladesh. At Friends of Basha, we are creating a society where girls and women are empowered, valued, accepted and have confidence to contribute to their family, community and nation.
