New skills learned and new products made: An update from the Heart of Baking
By Sara Ralphs
Our Heart of Baking enterprise (run in Bangalore by the previously-trafficked women living in our safe home for vocational training to set them up for a self-sufficient life after leaving our care) has recently expanded their product range from just baked goods to now also selling handmade, organic wellness products!
'To begin with, we organized natural soap-making workshops for the girls in the safe house shortly before the holiday period.' Says one field team member.
'They were totally entralled with the process and [after the workshops were finished] they continued to experiement using different colours, fragrances and ingredients - mostly from the kitchen!'
'Initally they made them to send out as gifts to various people but soon they had made enough to add to the product range of the Heart of Baking business!'
Two months on since the women made their first soaps, they've now expanded opperations yet again and are selling natural body butter and lip balms which they have also hand-made!
Why is the Heart of Baking important?
It is absolutely critical that these rescued women are given employable skills as they recover and rebuild their lives from scratch while living in our care. Here at The Freedom Project, we argue that there is almost no point rescuing people from slavery if you can't also then set them up for living their freed lives! We seek to not just rescue but restore and transform lives, and that is exactly what our programs do!
Entrepreneurial skills of business managaement, home economics, and so on - which the Heart of Baking happily provides - are simply the next step in helping these women leave their traumatic pasts behind.
And the training doesn’t stop there!
Some of the women in our care have even gone on to pursue higher education while living with us! Getting various accrediations from learning English, to data entry, to communications and even business studies and commerce!
When you give to The Freedom Project
you are helping us transform lives!
Your generousity helps our anti-trafficking programs continue to thrive!