Continuing on the Be the Designer journey, we've come to the place where Vicki Meehan's beautiful Waterfall design is ready to be sold. The final part of winning the competition, was that Vicki decided on a charity where proceeds of the sale of the necklace would be going to...
This was the first time we had heard about Sydney based organisation, The Freedom Hub, and boy can we tell you how much it hit home.
The charity was founded by Sally Irwin, who spent 3 years volunteering and supporting women in Berlin, who had been trafficked across borders for the sex industry. Upon returning to Australia, she begun to understand that the scope of the trafficking industry didn't stop at Australia's borders. She worked with the Salvation Army in one of the only safe houses for survivors of trafficking, and after a while the need for larger premises and designated support and education systems was obvious, thus the Freedom Hub was founded.
The Freedom Hub is a community, school and safe house for trafficked women. It's a place that helps survivors find employment and rebuild their lives. They run a beautiful social enterprise cafe that stocks only products that are 100% free from slavery in the supply chain. They also host fundraising events, where all proceeds go toward the Survivor School.
The Freedom Hub Survivor School is a wonderful initiative designed to encourage and prepare survivors of human trafficking to re-join the workforce. From one-on-one mentoring, supported learning and real world business links, it helps survivors learn faster and feel valued in the workplace, with the hope that trust can increase.
It's obviously a massive issue, and one that is very close to our hearts, so when Vicki suggested Freedom Hub as her charity, we were overjoyed at an opportunity to support such a valuable and unfortunately ever-increasing issue.
If you'd like to learn more about how you can contribute to the Freedom Hub, visit their website here.
