Aruna Project

The freedom business, an athleisure softgoods manufacturing company employing survivors of sex trafficking in south asia, has a primary mission to "empower through employment." the team has continued to excel. The number of survivors has increased. The survivors' overall mental health has improved significantly. Our production capacity has also increased as survivors are growing in their skills and developing relationships on their teams. This sustained employment has enabled many of them to ensure family and friends are no longer at risk for being trafficked.

The outreach centers, situated in some of the highest concentrations of sex trafficking in south asia, serve as the outreach arm into the brothel systems to create a pathway to freedom for sex trafficking victims through daily outreach in the areas of trafficking. The outreach team was able to expand work into additional trafficking areas and provide direct services to thousands of trafficked women and help facilitate freedom to many. Once freed, survivors are invited into the training centers where they receive transitional housing and entrance into the apprenticeship program. The training teams provide trauma counseling and care, life skill training, and soft goods manufacturing training, all in an environment of holistic care supported by aruna's four pillars of holistic care. The training center was able to see an over 50% growth in the survivors served, with 100% job placement for graduates. The work of the outreach teams and training teams combine to "free through equipping". The graduates are employed in somerset exports where they earn a career wage, retirement savings, access to health care and ongoing trauma care. Somerset was able to both increase the number of survivors employed as well as production capacity, launching multiple new products now competing in the us athleisure market. The work of the somerset team "empowers through employment". This is also mirrored in the us team, where us survivors are employed to help in inventory, quality control, order fulfillment and customer engagement. This year we have seen the most women freed, employed, and empowered than any year since aruna's founding.

The aruna runs are volunteer led awareness events that happen in cities across the us. In each aruna run, participants run for a woman by name that our training center teams are actively seeking to free. The participants also receive products produced by artisans in the freedom business who were freed, in part, as a result of previous aruna runs. The volunteer leaders did a great job this year in leading aruna runs in 12 different cities across the us.