Over the course of 20 years of its work, ASTRA received more than 38,000 calls through over its SOS Hotline, identified and provided various forms of support to more than 500 victims of trafficking. After leaving or being rescued from the trafficking situation and receiving first aid, victims need to go through re-socialization process, which is long, difficult and fraught with challenges – survivors are usually stigmatized, rejected by the immediate family, face unemployment and struggle with trauma and consequences of the inhuman treatment they were subjected to. They lack support and means to satisfy their basic needs and, consequently, their children also suffer.
In order to raise funds and met the basic needs of former victims of human trafficking and their children, we decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign on the Donacije.rs platform, starting on October 30. The total amount of funds we hope to raise is 350,000 RSD and it is intended to meet the most urgent needs of ASTRA beneficiaries and their children. These include packages of products for personal hygiene for children and adults, shoes and clothing for children and adults, food, firewood, urgent medical assistance expenses, administrative fees for obtaining personal documents, continuation of education, courses and trainings fees aimed to facilitate finding employment, tools for manual work, home appliances, transportation costs and snacks for schoolchildren…
We use this occasion to address you – humane, active and socially responsible individuals – to join efforts and help victims of trafficking and their families, to make their everyday life, at least in some aspects, a bit easier as well as to restore their faith in people and their capacity for charity.
We invite you to support our efforts to achieve this goal and join this initiative. If you feel the donation you could set aside is small or insignificant, please bear in mind that there are a lot of us who want to help and if we work together, we can make a difference!
ASTRA team