EDEN Jewelry
At EDEN Jewellery they have a Dream Wall. When a woman comes to EDEN she is invited to draw a picture of her dream and add it to EDEN's wall of dreams and every day as she attends counselling and therapy and the jewellery work she passes her dream. So often these women have never been asked what they wished or wanted before, and EDEN gives them the wonderfull gift of a dream.
EDEN works with victims of sexual exploitation in many different ways:
- They work in prevention. Traffickers generally target young women and children who are in financial distress or in disconnected family situations, luring them into cities with promises of work, or opportunities for education and income. EDEN has been visiting schools talking to young women and children about the patterns and promises of trafficker agents, creating awareness and reducing their vulnerability.
- EDEN workers befriend the Mafia and Pimps reaching out to them in order to increase their vision of themselves, trying to increase their awareness that they were made for a life of something better. This is dangerous work. However through their Mafia Friendship Program there have been girls set free and Brothels closed.
- EDEN works in major cities across Asia meeting women in the red light districts and befriending them. The EDEN team member will give a woman a heart necklace from the centre of the Committed Heart Necklace as a tangible gesture of friendship, along with a phone number and a promise of payment of any Taxi fare if the woman finds the courage to come to EDEN's safe house.
- EDEN works with Police and Authorities ensuring that the women who come to EDEN are not prosecuted under the law for a lack of Passports or Visas, and increasing the women's feeling of safety and being protected by the local law enforcement authorities.
- EDEN has a strong emphasis on restoration of each woman who comes into their protection and care. Each woman has the time to heal and regain her strength at her own pace and in her own time. Counselling and trauma care is offered to each woman. The jewellery making is a time of comradeship and mutual support and the women have jewellery pieces named for them to increase their sense of self worth and to celebrate their strength and achievement. Women earn a well deserved income from the jewellery making and all other profits go to the work of EDEN and directly benefit the women in their care.
- EDEN provides maternity care for women who come to EDEN pregnant or with a child. They also provide free health care for sexually transmitted diseases and women who have been exposed to HIV.
Eden works in six sites across Asia where they work to 'reach, rescue and restore' women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation or sold as brides. All the profits from each sale of EDEN jewellery directly benefit the women at EDEN. Grants and Donations cover their remaining costs. The three women who manage EDEN Melbourne have all left well paid and highly respected employment to work for EDEN as unpaid volunteers.
Your purchase of an EDEN piece of jewellery makes their work possible and enables them to increase the work they do, building safe houses, paying counsellors and befriending these beautiful young women. We love supporting EDEN's work.