ABOUT US
We are committed to girls' freedom
Since 2005, we have been working to ensure that survivors of trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence, and girls at high risk, have what they need to remain free, safe and independent.
OUR WORK
Education,
not exploitation
We work in the places where gender-based violence is the most severe – the poorest, most vulnerable areas of India, Nepal, and Kenya. We serve survivors of gender violence, and girls growing up in red light areas, slum communities, nomadic and indigenous communities, and villages with a high incidence of trafficking and child marriage.
OUR PROGRAMS
Building Bright, Independent Futures
Through local partnership with trusted, grassroots nonprofits, we provide long term, intensive programs which address root causes and systemic injustice to create lasting change and to build bright, independent futures.
FOOD & SHELTER
When a girl is rescued from trafficking, child marriage, or any harmful situation, she needs a safe place to heal and build a future. Some girls are able to return to their families within a few months of rescue. Others may need shelter care for many years, if their families do not accept them back, were involved in the abuse, or cannot be found. Some girls are rescued as children and need shelter care until they reach adulthood.
Her Future works with local partners to build, expand and maintain shelters for rescued girls, and to support food, clothing, medical care and counseling – long term. HFC Shelter programs are designed to provide more than safety and basic needs. A holistic, strength-based and individualized approach gives girls the chance to heal from their trauma, to learn to trust again, to build resilience and leadership skills, and to identify and move towards their unique goals and dreams.
Location: Nijoloy & Jalpaiguri, India
Partner: Women’s Interlink Foundation
We support the Jalpaiguri shelter serving over 150 women and children including, dormitories, classrooms, vocational training programs, a learning kitchen, and a playground.
Jalpaiguri is a highly trafficked rural area near the borders of Nepal & Bangladesh. Tea growing is a major industry and many girls are trafficked on tea farms.
Nijoloy was one of our first shelter projects, since 2010, a safe home for 150 girls rescued from trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence.
Location: Kenya
Partner: Samburu Girls Foundation
Providing shelter for survivors of child marriage, FGM, trafficking & rape. This new partnership launched in 2023 and has a strong focus on survivor leadership and community advocacy.
Location: Delhi, India
Partner: Rescue Foundation
Rescue Foundation conducts over 500 rescues annually, more than any other organization in India. We support their work, providing comprehensive shelter and care to hundreds of survivors each year.
Location: Sonagachi and Bowbazar
Partner: South Kolkata Hamari Muskan
These spaces provide a safe space for children to study and rest while their mothers are working. Children who are born into brothel communities are at extreme risk of being trafficked. 90% of girls and 75% of boys growing up in red light areas are sexually abused by the age of eight.
Location: Kenya
Partner: LifeBloom
Location: Mumbai, India
Partner: Jeevan Aadhar
Residential program for survivors wishing to pursue higher education.
EDUCATION
Her Future Coalition provides education to over 1000 survivors and high risk girls each year. Many have never been to school before, or their education was interrupted due to exploitation, extreme poverty, or cultural norms that undervalue educating girls.
For girls growing up in red light areas, slums, or communities that engage in harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM, the percentage completing high school, or even primary school, is exceptionally low. For women trafficked into red light areas, 98% are illiterate, which is unsurprising given that 49% are trafficked before age 16. The majority of girls in these situations who attend school at all drop out before the age of 12.
Education breaks cycles of poverty and slavery, and gives girls the tools to build a bright, independent future, free from all forms of exploitation. Many of the graduates of our education programs go on to higher education and professional careers. 100% of children in HFC’s education programs in 2024 remained free from trafficking, child marriage and child labor.
HFC Education Programs include: entire schools, education and college sponsorships, computer, STEM and English courses, adult literacy, remedial education, virtual classes and tutoring, and mobile schools, libraries, and teacher training.
Location: West Bengal, India
Partner: co-working space for 10+ nonprofits aligned with Her Future Coalition’s mission
Our Learning Center offers education, vocational and mental health programs, workshops on women’s rights, human rights, therapeutic arts, and support services to hundreds of survivors and vulnerable girls.
Everyone who comes to the center receives training in basic computer literacy and spoken English – life changing skills which open up a world of possibilities for their careers and lives.
Location: Sonagachi and Bowbazar
Partner: South Kolkata Hamari Muskan
Through our three Red Light Resource Centers, 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.
Location: Nuwakot, Nepal
Partner: The Freedom School
Educating over 125 kids in 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.
Location: Kolkata, India
Partner: Ek Tara
We support the education of 250 girls from Kolkata’s largest slum communities. 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.
Location: Kolkata, India
Partner: Suchana
We provide school support, a mobile library, computer education, counseling and trafficking awareness to 75 indigenous children from the Avadasi and Santal communities. 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.
Location: Kolkata, India
Partner: Women’s Interlink Foundation
We sponsor the education of 60 girls each year. 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.
Location: India, Kenya and Nepal
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.
Location: Kolkata, India
Partner: Women’s Interlink Foundation and Kolkata Police Enforcement
After school programming for 325 children. These centers provide school support, tutoring, karate, 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 long hours.
Location: Narok, Kenya
Partner: LifeBloom
Serving 200 children from nomadic communities.
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Partner: Apple of God’s Eye
Primary, secondary and college education for survivors and high risk children.
Location: Kolkata, India
Partner: Mustard Seeds
Workshops, arts and library program for children in a Kolkata slum community.
JOB TRAINING
Economic independence enables women to rise out of extreme poverty and makes them – and their children – less vulnerable to trafficking, child marriage and other forms of exploitation. Vocational training – combined with life skills, job placement support, and financial literacy training – gives women a pathway to become financially independent. They gain power in their family and community – and the freedom to make choices for their lives.
Location: West Bengal, India
Partner: Uddami
Location: West Bengal, India
Partner: Lamprini
Location: West Bengal, India
Partner: Calcutta Foundation
Location: West Bengal, India
Partner: Women’s Interlink Foundation
Location: West Bengal, India
Partner: Her Future Coalition Flagship Program
Location: Kenya
Partner: LifeBloom
Location: India
Partner:
Location: Nepal
Partner:
HEALTH & WELL-BEING
Most girls come to HFC with significant trauma and little or no support network. Girls who have been trafficked have been robbed of bodily and personal autonomy. For many girls, abuse, neglect and betrayal has happened many times throughout their young lives. Suicidal thoughts, depression, disconnection from their bodies, and anxiety are common.
Ongoing mental health services are essential – in order for any other services to be successful. Mental health services are offered to all participants in all HFC programs, whether they are living in a rescue shelter, growing up in a red light area, or taking a computer or baking course. Services include group and individual counseling, therapeutic arts, leadership training, yoga and mind-body wellness.
Solutions are rooted in a larger human rights framework: teaching people their rights and applicable laws so that they are able to protect themselves and others. All services are offered in a trauma-informed and strength-based context – building on the girls’ innate resilience and individual gifts. Perhaps most important of all, girls are surrounded by a supportive community of kinship and love, vital to their healing.
