Hope for Justice wins Home Office funding for Ethiopia anti-slavery project
Hope for Justice is delighted to receive UK Home Office backing and funding for one of our key projects, providing support and education to vulnerable girls in Ethiopia who have been victims of, or are at risk of, child sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.
Our work in Ethiopia is delivered by Retrak, which is part of the Hope for Justice family. Our project assisting young victims of domestic exploitation was one of six programmes around the world to be awarded a total of £4m in UK aid funding as part of the Modern Slavery Innovation Fund.
Lynnette Kay, Hope for Justice’s Country Director for Ethiopia (pictured below), said: “We are pleased to be able to continue our work to support child victims of domestic exploitation in Ethiopia. We support the girls to regain self-esteem, to return to their families and to develop skills to resume education.
“We will extend our innovative approach of bringing together employers and domestic workers to ensure domestic work is legal and respects workers’ rights.
“The Modern Slavery Innovation Fund grant focuses attention on a problem that is largely invisible and a cultural blindspot.”
Dr Lynette Kay, Hope for Justice’s Country Director for Ethiopia, with (left) Neil Wain, Hope for Justice International Programme Director; and (right) Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, Greater Manchester Police
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said: “Modern slavery is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. It impacts on some of the most vulnerable people in the world, but also funds organised crime at home in the UK. UK aid will support the Modern Slavery Innovation Fund to trial new ways to stop this crime. By working across government and with businesses to end trafficking, we will create a safer and more prosperous world for us all. This is the aid budget working twice as hard – both around the world and helping here at home too.”
Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Victoria Atkins (pictured) said: “Human trafficking, forced labour and exploitation are sadly not evils of the past, but are with us today. The government is leading the way through its work to end the horrors of modern slavery across the globe.
“The projects being funded today will help protect some of the most vulnerable people on the planet and encourage more innovative approaches to identifying victims and pursuing those who would exploit them.”
This funding marks the second phase of the Modern Slavery Innovation Fund and will run until 2021. The first phase of the fund totalled £6m and supported 10 projects between Spring 2017 and March 2019, including our project to support more than 200 girls who experienced or were at risk of exploitation received health and educational support in Ethiopia.
The UK government has committed a total of £200m in UK aid to combat modern slavery, of which the Modern Slavery Innovation Fund is just one part.
More information is available in the Home Office announcement, here.
