From Victims to Survivors to Business Owners: PJI Survivors Launch New Businesses

EDO STATE, NIGERIA. We are so proud to announce the launch of additional small businesses (in catering, clothing sales, bath and body products and fashion design) for some of our survivors in Benin City, Edo State, an internationally recognized sex trafficking hub.  These young women were trafficked from Benin City to Russia, where they sustained years of mental, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their traffickers and customers.  They repatriated to Nigeria in 2016 and needed the necessary support, which Pathfinders provides via our Personalized Action to Healing (PATH) Plans.  Our PATH Plans are customized for each survivor and include anything from medical, legal and counseling services, shelter, vocational skills training, start-up business training and funding. Survivors choose their own PATH Plans.

In addition to providing the requisite vocational skills training, Pathfinders also provides our survivors with rudimentary business training (in accounting, entrepreneurship, etc.) and the start-up capital to launch their small businesses.  Moreover, via our #Not4Sale Campaign, we provide the necessary logistical support for our survivors to sell their products so that they are firmly on their paths to economic independence.  To purchase items made by survivors and/or to support their small businesses, kindly email info@pathfindersji.org or call (0817) 612-3228 (Nigeria).

Pathfinders Justice Initiative