EDUCATION IS HER FUTURE
Many survivors and high risk girls have never been to school before, or had their education interrupted. Our education programs get girls back in school and take them from preschool to college, and even grad school. Many opt for social services, medical fields, law enforcement and other engaged work that allows them to give back.
Each year, Her Future Coalition supports the education of over 750 students. We believe that education is the most powerful and long-lasting tool for preventing trafficking and other forms of gender violence.
We work closely with local partner organizations to build and operate entire schools, education and college sponsorships, computer, STEM and English courses, adult literacy, remedial education, virtual classes and tutoring, mobile schools, libraries, and teacher training.
Child survivors of slavery and kids born into brothel communities are destined to grow up and repeat the cycle unless given an education to build a different kind of life.
Out of the 450+ girls who have gone through our education program and completed grade 10, not a single one has been trafficked into slavery or re-trafficked, even though their backgrounds make them extremely high risk.
Our Education Programs
Red Light Resource Centers
Red Light Resource Centers
Through our three Red Light Resource Centers, in partnership with local organization South Kolkata Hamari Muskan, we provide school sponsorships, after-school tutoring, counseling, and a safe space to study and relax after school for 300 children born into red light districts of Kolkata. The Resource Centers keep girls safe while their mothers are seeing clients, and offer a pathway out of second generation trafficking.
The Freedom School
The Freedom School
The Freedom School, aka Hasta Memorial School, was founded by survivor-activist and author Anjali Tamang. The school opened in Fall 2021 and is now educating over 125 kids in Nuwakot, a region of Eastern Nepal with a severe child trafficking problem. We also have 25 girls in residential care, who are at particularly high risk. The project also employs survivors and provides counseling to families, with a goal of changing the community mindset around trafficking.
Her Future Coalition Middle School By Ek Tara
Her Future Middle School by Ek Tara
Through our partnership with EkTara School, we are able to support the education of 250 girls from Kolkata’s largest slum communities. Before EkTara came into the area, girls in this very poor, traditional Muslim migrant community were rarely sent to school, and were at high risk for child marriage, trafficking, or child labor. Now they are receiving life-changing, top quality education. Their mothers have been given vocational training, and we were able to provide manny months of food support to the students’ families during the strict COVID lockdowns, when no one was allowed to work.
Mobile Education
Mobile Education
We are partnering with Suchana to provide school support, a mobile library, computer education, counseling and trafficking awareness to 75 indigenous children from the Avadasi and Santal communities of Bengal, India. The goal is to help kids catch up to their age group, and then get them enrolled in mainstream schools. Adavasi have the lowest development indicators of any groups in India – they have had access to education for only a generation; life expectancy is lowest; and poverty levels are highest. Young indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to exploitation in a number of ways. They are vulnerable to the risks inherent in migration for work in very insecure conditions. For girls, the processes through which they enter domestic labour opportunities is often akin to trafficking and there are high risks of sexual exploitation. For those that remain at home, early marriage is the standard answer.
Shelter-Based Education
Shelter Home Education
Through our longstanding partnership with Womens Interlink Foundation, we sponsor the education and shelter room and board of 60 girls each year, at the Nijoloy rescue shelters in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri (built by HFC in 2015 and expanded in 2017). We have built strong relationships with these girls over many years. Many of them were rescued at a young age and will stay at the shelter until they reach adulthood and can stand firmly on their own feet. Girls in these homes have been rescued from sex trafficking, labor trafficking, child marriage, or were living alone on railway platforms or born into brothel communities. It is incredible to be part of the healing that has transpired in their lives since joining the program. We have high hopes for their futures!
College Education
College Education
We support college and grad school education for over 50 girls, including many who have come up through our other education programs, or are living in rescue shelters. Our college sponsored students are working towards degrees in everything from Accounting to Environmental Engineering, Med school, IT, Tourism and Hospitality, Sociology, Education, and more.
Education for Street Children in Kolkata
Education for Street Children in Kolkata
We support after school programming for 225 children through the Nabadisha project for street and slum children, in partnership with Women's Interlink Foundation. These centers provide school support, tutoring, karate and gymnastics, human rights education, arts programming and many other services to children who would otherwise not be in school, and would be roaming the streets while their parents are working all day and evening.