15 years of Social Enterprise
Our first cafe opened in 2011. It had been built up from mud floors with the dream to help the project have a permanent location as well as safe work opportunities. After several renovations over the years, it now houses our jewelry and salon businesses while also selling (and using) products from our organic farm.
Beyond hundreds of safe jobs over the years, it’s also been a second home and safe meeting place for countless expats over the years.
Please pray for our continued success of our 7 businesses. The current fuel crisis (war in Iran) has impacted food prices, travel and general spending in the region.
Our New Safe Homes
A few years ago we bought and renovated a property which is now our Vocational Training Center. A few blocks away, we also purchased land and started building new safe homes. For the first time, we are excited to OWN our safe homes which are custom built to best care for the girls we help.
Within the next few months we will finish up all construction and move onto outfitting the homes.
Once the girls are done school for the summer, they will move into the new homes and start school in a new part of town for next year. The girls have already been at the new homes, helping plant the garden, and everyone is beyond excited. Please pray for this transition period as everyone moves.
Thank you to the donors who supported this throughout the years - this project is now 100% fully funded.
Our Biggest Dream Yet
We now are looking to buy land and build a permanent care center in a neighbouring country.
Over the last few years, we have outgrown our current facilities and now look to build a center that provides safe homes (for boys AND girls), skills training, work opportunities and investigation support.
This has been our dream for years, and our biggest project yet.
The first step is securing the land.
As it’s on an island, suitable land is at a premium. We’ve found an ideal 5.5-acre property just outside the city and negotiated a price and year long time frame to come up with the funds.
We’re excited to share that $2 million of the $3.5 million (Canadian) needed has already been raised or pledged.
Wow.
If you’d like to be part of making this happen, simply reply to this email and we’d love to connect and share more.
Brothel Outreach
We regularly visit 10 brothels. Last month we had another girl leave a brothel and join us working in our jewelry business. Praise God.
During these outreaches, our staff lead fun activities, teach lessons about STI’s and what it means to be valued. In the last few weeks we accompanied 2 girls to the hospital to get tested and treated.
Building trust with girls in exploitative situation is long and difficult. We have relationships with over 50 girls right now who are still in bad situations.
Lets pray for them.
Evangelism
Before Easter, we were able to share the gospel and provide anti-trafficking & abortion training in farms, villages, and rural churches.
We saw 5 new believers through this time.
These outreaches are typically to minority groups that live in very difficult situations. We praise God for the opportunity to reach new places and new people with the Gospel.
We also continued our outreach in schools. We taught hundreds of students and parents on "AI Literacy and Online Safety.”
Vocational Training
We currently have 34 students studying in vocational skills such as hair dressing, baking, sewing and barista.
Each one-year program includes a government approved certificate, helping them to safe employment after graduation. One of the biggest challenges is finding safe job placements for all the students after they graduate. Lets pray for the right job placements for these girls.
Visitors
We are fortunate to have many people interested in visiting the projects sites.
In the last few months we’ve had veterinarians come and help teach at our farm, a team came that lead training around Trauma Healing and a larger team (35 people) from multiple churches across Canada who came to hear from our team and learn more about the project.
We are looking forward to hosting a few teams in the Fall as well. If your a church leader or donor that is interested in knowing more about trips in the future we’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for caring.
With the renovations at the Training Center complete, we are excited for our first group of students to start this October. We will be accepting a group of young women from rural backgrounds who would not have any other way of receiving further education. They will start with reading, writing, and mathematics, before moving on to one of our 4 different vocations. Please pray for these young women as they learn and grow in community with us.
Thank you for partnering with us financially! Click the 'support' button below if you wish to join us this way.
Global Advance Fund (GAF): This is a pooled fund that supports the living allowance of all International Workers, including us!
Ministry Partner Fund: includes the previous work special, outfit fund, and vehicle fund. This fund covers multiple ministry costs not only related to our everyday ministry but also to help the many people in-need outside our daily ministry.
Tricked, Trafficked, Treasured: towards the vocational school as well as other operational expenses related to the school and its overall ministry.