Our Mission
Every Woman Free
Since 2016 we have been visiting and supporting women who suffer injustice and have found themselves in prison due to many different factors of the complicated international employment system in the Middle East. Throughout our work, we have supported hundreds of women (primarily domestic workers) in prison in the Middle East.
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Many of the women we serve come to the Middle East with the understanding that they will clean homes or take care of children. However, when they arrive many experience violations of employment rights such as not being allowed to leave the employer's house, possess their own passports, or even have their mobile phones to communicate with family back home. We also hear of devastating situations of physical and sexual abuse, as well as being forced to work without payment. Many of the women run away from their employers when they face situations like these. Once they have fled, if the police stop them, they will be arrested for having a case against them from their employer, or not having the right documentation to stay in the country.
This is where we meet the women in the local detention centers and begin visitation, advocacy, and support. Through our visitation program, we can help them with the details of their legal cases, provide them with some financial support, and assist them by raising funds to help them purchase plane tickets so they can return home.
What We Do
Support Emotionally, Physically, & Spiritually
Prison Visits
Every week on visitation days, we go to the prison to spend time with the women. During these visits, we encourage the women and seek to understand more about their situations. Most importantly, we let them know they are SEEN, HEARD, AND CARED FOR.
Hygiene Items
In detention centers, the women cannot access hygiene items unless they purchase them themselves. On every prison visit, the volunteers bring a small financial gift for the women so they can buy things like toothpaste and sanitary pads. Often, these gifts are from the volunteers themselves.
Case Processing
Part of our team’s role is to assist the women in learning more about their legal cases. This often entails inquiring about their cases on their behalf at the local police stations or applying for travel documents through their regional embassies when necessary. Recently, through a generous donor we have secured a lawyer to help us with some of the harder cases and he has a been a huge help in our work.
Tickets Home
A big part of what we do is to support the women ready to travel by buying a repatriation ticket to their home countries. They will not be released from detention if they cannot purchase a flight back to their country, regardless if they have no case against them or have finished their sentence. We fundraise and purchase their tickets so they can finally return home.
Care Packages
We provide care packages for women in prison and detention centers. This includes hygiene items and approved clothing items. Care packages often depend on an application process to do a distribution that must be approved by the police director, but is an additional way to encourage the women.
Reintegration
We are currently developing partners throughout African countries where most of the domestic workers are from to help receive women when they are released and repatriated. These partners offer services such as airport pickups, counseling, spiritual enhancement programs, and job training for the women to be reintegrated back into their home countries.