Dear friends,

Before I share an update on the Afghan women and families we have been supporting, I want to ask you for something very concrete: Please vote today for the project “Bought back. Now free.” about survivors of human trafficking in Uganda, submitted by HeartWork Foundation / HeartWork Stichting in the VOOR Competition.

Thanks to so much support, the project has already reached position 6 with more than 13,000 votes. But we need to keep going. Only the 15 projects with the most votes move on to the jury, and every vote still counts.

You can vote here:  https://voor.nl/voorbeeld-projecten/2026#1168

Voting takes two minutes:

• Click the link above
• Find HeartWork Foundation / HeartWork Stichting
• Tap the + sign 10 times to give your votes to the project
• Enter your email address and confirm your vote
• Check your inbox and spam folder for the confirmation link

Please also keep sharing the voting link with your networks. Thank you for believing in this mission.

Sarah Arao founded this initiative in Lira, Northern Uganda, in 2017. She works with young women who survived human trafficking in the Middle East.

Many were lured with false promises of work. What followed was exploitation, abuse, and sometimes years of captivity. Families often spent everything they had to buy their daughters back.

And then these women came home.

With trauma.
 Without a diploma.
 Without income.
 Often with children to care for.

Sarah once said:

“They are physically free, but imprisoned inside.”

Her project offers trauma support, skills training, reintegration, and a path toward economic independence. Through the VOOR Competition, this project has a chance to win €125,000.

With that funding, Sarah and her team can support 120 new women through a two-year program and build three small enterprises so the project can become self-sustaining.

Not a charity drip. An economic engine.

 

And now I also want to share an update on the Afghan women and families connected to this petition.

It is not a polished success story.

 Because that is not what this work is.

It is a living story.

With relief. With grief. With uncertainty. With small openings of hope. Some of the Afghan women and families who managed to leave are slowly rebuilding their lives.

One woman is now in France with her two children. After everything she has been through, she is beginning to feel alive again. She is starting to engage with life, with people, with possibilities. She sounds genuinely happy. And after so much fear, that is no small thing.

Another family relocated to Brazil. They are safe, but they are struggling. It is hard to find work. It is hard to find their footing. It is hard to access the healthcare they need. Safety is the beginning. It is not yet stability.

Another journalist and women’s rights activist, whom we helped relocate to Brazil, is now in Australia. Again, this happened because people cared. Because people refused to look away. Because small networks of ordinary people kept showing up.

And something else is happening too. The Afghan diaspora is beginning to organize itself.

Women and families who were helped are now thinking about how they can help others. They are developing ideas, projects, and ways to keep supporting the Afghan women who are still left behind.

Because so many are still trapped.

In the Inner Peace Journey group, we also shifted gears. A very generous American woman living in France, who found us through this petition, came forward and is now offering English lessons to the participants who continued with the program.

This group is mixed. Some are now in Germany or the Netherlands, going through the asylum process. Some are still in Afghanistan. All of them are carrying a lot. None of their lives are easy.

One woman who was in Pakistan, desperately trying to escape, was deported back to Afghanistan. She is now living in deep uncertainty.

This is the reality behind the word “relocation.”

It is not a clean ending.

 It is not a rescue movie where the credits roll after the border crossing.

It is a long, fragile road. And still, life keeps moving.

 People keep helping.

 New seeds keep appearing in the cracks.

That is why I am asking you to support Sarah’s project today.

Because whether we are talking about Afghan women in exile, women trapped in Afghanistan, or survivors of trafficking in Uganda, the deeper question is the same:

What happens after survival?

Our answer is simple.

We keep showing up.
 We help women rebuild.
 We help them stand on their own feet.
 And we trust that when one woman rises, many others rise with her.

So please vote today.

Please give your votes to the Teruggekocht. Nu vrij. (Dutch) Bought back. Now free. (English) Submitted by the HeartWork stichting/ HeartWork foundation.

And please share this with people who care.

Thank you for being part of this.

With love,
 Nadja