Women Entrepreneurs Prevent Dangerous Migration

The last three months since we last submitted our report has been a particularly successful period for HERA.  In May we secured a five-year partnership with Imperial Business School to support our annual entrepreneurship programme and we have also received positive publicity for the work we are doing, most recently with a feature on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s hour.

After a successful recruitment drive of both mentors and mentees we hosted our seventh annual HERA entrepreneurship programme at Imperial College.  Firstly in June we provided seven hours of mentorship training and education on trafficking to high calibre mentors from a range of professional and business backgrounds e.g. law, healthcare, banking and finance.

Then in July we ran our 12-day entrepreneurship programme for 36 protégés.  We were delighted with this year’s cohort and their presentations at the end of the course highlighted that learning outcomes had been achieved.  We believe that with the support of their mentors, many of our protégés will achieve their career and business aspirations.

Whilst the entrepreneurship programme has been our main focus to date, we recognised that the stigma of having been trafficked discouraged women we have helped from staying in contact.   Therefore we have been unable to provide more sustainable support after the years mentorship to ensure career aspirations are met and business ventures continue.  To overcome this we have expanded our target group of women we aim to serve, to include those that have also suffered from other forms of sexual exploitation or abuse.  In addition, we have developed the concept of an Innovation Centre, which has just opened in Shoreditch, London for 8 hours each week.  This is available to past, present and potential future mentees (referred by our partner charities).  The centre is also to host bi monthly seminars, open to both mentors and mentees.  We believe the Innovation Centre will create a HERA community, encouraging more women to stay in contact with us, through which we will be able to support more vulnerable women to access our expertise and support to achieve economic autonomy.

This work would not be possible without the support we have received from Global Giving. Over the next three months we will be working to ensure the Innovation Centre is up and running and utilised effectively to ensure our aims are met.