Celebrating five years of unlocking freedom

January 2021 marks five years since we opened the first Ella’s safe house. Since then, we’ve grown from two to eight permanent members of staff, opened a second safe house and expanded to reach women and families living in neighbourhoods across London as well as through our houses. 

Here are a few highlights from the last five years: 

• 60 survivors directly supported  

• 33 children benefiting

• 22 women enabled to enrol in education and training 

• 5 women supported to testify against their traffickers 

In the beginning

In the months leading up to the opening of our first safe house in 2016, it was all hands on deck. 

‘We were nearly ready, but not quite, when a woman in urgent need was referred to us,’ says Emily Chalke, our Co-Director.

‘Ploy was a survivor of trafficking and exploitation who was extremely ill with cancer. The accommodation she’d been allocated by the authorities was shared and extremely basic, and she was just too ill for it to be ok. 

‘We were determined to be able to give her a better place to live, so we stepped up the pace to get the safe house ready in time!’ 

With the help of some brilliant supporters, the house was painted, furnished and staffed, and Ploy was able to move in – Ella’s’ first safe house resident. It was an intense and difficult time, but she was so grateful to have a warm, private room to stay in. Ploy sadly died 10 months after moving in, but she was safe and cared for when she passed away. And we are so glad could be there for her.

Photos: thanks to our brilliant volunteers, our safe house was and still is a welcoming home and crucial refuge for survivors like Ploy and Yeta (pictured eating together in 2016).

Intensive support

Yeta was another of our first safe house residents five years ago. We’re still working with her today.

Yeta is a woman in her 40s, originally from Albania, who came to us following years of trauma. She has complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and frequently loses consciousness when something or someone reminds her of her past. She finds many aspects of life extremely difficult as a result of her experiences of being trafficked and exploited.

Yeta’s health has been hugely impacted by her experiences of trafficking and exploitation. Flowers are one of her favourite things.

‘I was at a crossroad when I came to Ella’s,’ says Yeta. ‘I was so lucky that you were able to open the door to me. Otherwise, things would have become even worse. The most important thing for me when I arrived was to feel safe. And I did feel safe.’

‘The smiles of the staff are everything to me, they give me hope. Ella’s feels like a warm place to be, where the residents feel loved.’ 

In the five years since she arrived, we’ve helped Yeta access the different types of mental health support she needs, and slowly begin to recover from her trauma. We’ve also enabled her to access the government support she’s entitled to, secure her immigration status and take part in local community group activities and learning. After 18 months living in our safe house, we helped Yeta find supported accommodation nearby, where she still lives. None of this would have been possible for Yeta, before she arrived at Ella’s. 

When we’re needed most

For some women, like Yeta, they are with Ella’s for long periods of time and may always need some form of support to cope with life post-trafficking and exploitation. For others, they need help for a short but crucial time in their life. 

Sarah is one of our more recent safe house residents. She arrived during 2020, and stayed just five months.

“I had nowhere else to go at the time. Without Ella’s, I would have been homeless.”

‘I had nowhere else to go at the time,’ says Sarah, a survivor of trafficking originally from a country in Africa. ‘Without Ella’s, I would have been homeless.’ 

We helped Sarah take time to recover, and supported her as she applied for a college course and found a job as a carer. For Sarah, encouragement and a safe place to live for a short time were the things she needed in order to move forward independently. She moved out of our safe house after five months to share a flat with a friend, and she’s doing great!

You can help make the next chapter possible

We’ve seen so much impact and growth during our first few years, but we are just getting started.

We hope to open a third safe house in the next year, and grow our work to help ensure more women have the urgent and long-term support they need to recover and build lives that are safe and free. But we need your help to do it.

Will you help mark our anniversary by donating your occasion? Whether you pledge your birthday, anniversary, wedding or something completely different, by asking your friends to make a donation to Ella’s instead of giving cards and gifts, you’ll be helping raise vital funds to help survivors.

It’s quick, easy and free:

• Go to Just Giving and click ‘Fundraise for us.’ From there you can quickly set up a ‘donate your occasion’ fundraiser for Ella’s. 

• In the run-up to your occasion, share your fundraiser with friends via social media, email, word of mouth and so on. Tell them you’re collecting donations for Ella’s instead of gifts/cards, and ask them to donate if they can. 

Celebrate with us by donating your occasion, and you’ll make a real and lasting difference in the lives of women who’ve survived trafficking and exploitation.

Thank you. And here’s to the next five years of unlocking freedom.