#RewindWithOIAA: Throwback With Free The Girls
In honour of Jimin’s birthday last year, One In An ARMY launched a 5-day fundraiser to support Free The Girls (FTG), an organisation that helps women in Africa and Central America, who are survivors of sex trafficking, reintegrate into their communities by providing them mediums to re-start their lives and attain holistic freedom in employment, health, social well-being, and personal development.
Through their entrepreneurship program, the team collects new and gently used bras and sends them to their program partners in Mozambique, El Salvador, and Costa Rica where women get to start their own business by selling them in the local markets.
In 5 days, 948 ARMY came together to support FTG’s work and raised $21,934! The funds will facilitate processing, shipping, and importing of enough inventory to cover all the women in FTG’s Mozambique and El Salvador programs for an entire year!
As we revisit all the organizations we have worked with in the past 12 months for our third anniversary, we decided to ask them a few questions. Let’s check out what Free The Girls has to say:
Updates On The Programs And New Developments
Thankfully, all of our programs are back up and running after COVID lockdowns! We have had to modify a few aspects here and there, but for the most part, we are operating fully once again.
Organization’s Fund Allocation Plan
We are looking into expanding our programs in 2021. This is twofold: expanding the number of women in what we currently offer and looking into other avenues for economic empowerment for survivors of sex trafficking outside of bras. Our current model works well in certain places but we are hindered from implementing it in other locations due to a variety of factors (import laws, lack of demand or market saturation, etc.). If COVID has taught us anything, it’s reinforcing the fact that survivors need jobs that dignify and provide livable wages. So we are exploring other models, other types of economic empowerment in other parts of the world. We are still in the exploratory stage, but we are very optimistic about a few of these!
The Impact Of Pandemic On The Organization’s Operations
We had to pivot as many did. With lockdowns, our women were unable to sell their inventory in the ways they had become accustomed to. We had to bridge the gap, assisting with rent and groceries for the women and their children to avoid revictimization or re-trafficking. As I mentioned above, thankfully we are back to operating at full capacity — and then some! We’ve added women into all of our locations as we’ve seen more financially desperate situations as the pandemic provided the “perfect storm” for traffickers to find and exploit more individuals.
The Impact Of OIAA’s Campaign On The Organization
This was the single-most effective campaign anyone has ever held for us! Your campaign made up the difference of what was donated in 2019 and our projections for 2020 adjusting for the pandemic! In January, we shipped MORE BRAS THAN EVER BEFORE TO EL SALVADOR! We also increased the number of women in our Salvadoran program by 17%! This was all made possible due to ARMY!
Do You Know BTS?
I had personally not heard about BTS prior (forgive me, I am self-admittedly rather uncool!) but other staff members (as well as my mom!) did. My toddlers now regularly sing and dance to Dynamite. :) This project absolutely had our whole staff interested about both BTS and ARMY. We were completely blown away by the generosity and influence ARMY has on a global scale. We are truly honored and humbled to have been a part of this.
Support Free The Girls For OIAA’s Third Anniversary
- Visit the donation page created for the organization or scan the QR code on Free The Girls’ poster
Donation Page Link: https://freethegirls.salsalabs.org/fundraiseforfreedom/p/keepgoingwithjimin/index.html - Donate any amount (a minimum of $1)
- Take a screenshot and submit it on our tracking form (hide any personal information).
- Share the campaign with your friends and family.
Follow the instructions and updates about our Throwback Campaign here.
We are completely aware that not everyone is able to contribute through a monetary donation, but your support, in any form, is significant to our campaign. For example, you can share our SNS posts to help increase the reach and visibility of the org amongst your followers. Find us on social media here: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, and Amino.
