Stand with Survivors

Hello friends, 

I hope this finds you well, and that you're having a wonderful start to the new year. We're so excited to share what we have been up to with you. We would also like to thank you for your support and allowing us to provide recovery support to survivors of human cruelty. Thank you!

In this update we'd like to share with you a few special stories of survivors that we've worked with in the last few months: 

• One survivor got in touch to let us know about her new job, following her involvement in our employment workshops last year. Amazingly, her employer also has a refugee employment scheme, so she was getting in touch to extend the invitation for more HBF clients to apply for work.

• One therapy client has had a really big turn-around: with our help, just before Christmas she was given suitable accommodation (after a LONG battle). This has massively increased her hope for the future and improved her mood. Meaning with guidance from our Integration team, she has felt able to start volunteering, is about to start a baking course, and is looking at ways to resume her career as a nurse.

• A Vietnamese victim of trafficking was in detention for years because of being charged with criminal activity while in trafficking. When he came out of detention, he slept on the floor of the one room he shared with his wife, and young son and daughter. They became homeless at the beginning of December and we helped them get accommodation from their council. They were recently moved somewhere bigger but with no furniture, and with two grant applications from HBF, we’ve got the family a double bed & mattress, bunk beds and mattresses, a sofa, dining table and chairs, washing machine, wardrobe, pots & pans and a vacuum cleaner! The client has become more and more assertive throughout all of this and his family finally have enough space for them all and furniture to be able to enjoy their living space together.

• Our women’s walking group did their first walk this month and decided to name themselves ‘Happy Women Together’ – this group of survivors will be continuing their training throughout the year and building up to the challenge of climbing the three highest peaks in the UK (find out more here). This group promises to have a huge impact on these women’s lives, improving confidence, leadership and outdoor skills and reducing loneliness and isolation

We are so proud of the massive improvements these people have made in their lives and it's been wonderful to see these transformations. 

Thank you once again for your support and we look forward to sharing more of our work with you in our next report.

Our warmest regards

Helen Bamber Foundation

Links:

• Helen Bamber Foundation Website