2021 Embrace

Hello Red Community!

I just wanted to give you a little update about what has and is happening with Embrace. If you don’t know, Embrace is a project that started out of Red Community nearly four years ago. We see ourselves as the hands and feet of Jesus’ passion for justice, compassion and love toward survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery. There are two main aims of the project: befriending and sponsorship. 

Trained befrienders – Christians in the Cardiff and Newport areas – are matched up to clients that have been referred to us by partnering agencies. After an initial introduction, befrienders meet up weekly do something fun and stress free: a walk, coffee, shop, etc. This arm of the project has been much loved by the community of people involved. It has been an utter joy to watch friendships blossom and a slow restoration of friendship and trust enter back into the  lives of women that have suffered injustice at the hands of evil. 

During lockdown, ladies accessing befriending have had a hard time – like us all – at adjusting to a new way of living. Depression, anxiety, loneliness, and fear have been frequent companions to these ladies. In an ideal world, it would be the time that befrienders could walk alongside them and brighten their days. But due to restrictive government measures during COVID (which we whole-heartedly agree with and understand), befrienders have often had to physically avoid their Embrace friends and depend on technology for contact. Yet even this means of contact is unreliable as many Embrace friends don’t have access to smart phones, WiFi, or mobile data. 

In spite of setbacks, Embrace befrienders did all they could to show love and care for their Embrace friends. At Christmas, Embrace gave each befriender money to create “hobby packages” for Embrace friends. Befrienders sent cards in the post. When possible, face to face meetings will start again. Even those will look different until there is more stability in terms of COVID. Needless to say, it hasn’t been a normal year for befriending and we will continue to adjust in order to be safe. 

While befriending has slowed down, sponsorship requests have flooded in. From your donations, we have been able to quickly get money to men and women that need clothing, food, Christmas items, personal necessities, household goods, etc. The most requested items this year have been for tech devices – dongles, laptops, phones, tablets. These give survivors connection to the outside world and access to online courses. 

This year, we honestly don’t know what to expect for Embrace. 2020 showed us that even the best plans may have to change. Embrace will start again slowly, carefully. 

Please could you keep us on your radar? Consider joining us by giving of your finances, inquiring about befriending, keeping up to date on what is happening in regards to human trafficking and modern slavery, and praying for the men and women that are currently or historically victims of slavery. 

Thanks for loving people with us. 

Lauren