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Support Friends of Basha

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. They 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 they 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 their 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.

Friends of Basha is creating a society where girls and women are empowered, valued, accepted and have confidence to contribute to their family, community and nation.

Current Work Includes

- An outreach programme to understand the needs of women in prostitution in Tangail, a renowned brothel town

- A training programme for women who need support and preparation to enter the mainstream workforce

- A home for young girls who were previously fending for themselves

- Nutritious food twice a day in Basha’s daycare centres located at four of Basha’s five Production Centres.

- Daily tutoring and school support for all children of Basha employees (120+ children)

- Counselling, mentoring and psychiatric care as needed

- Training Rohingya refugee women to sew