Our Home, Safe Home

The Safe Home project started by providing residential care support to daughters of sex workers, but over the years the objective has shifted to identify community based care solutions for those children. The project is located in Daulatdia Union of Goalundo Upazila of Rajbari District in Bangladesh. Daulatdia is not only the biggest brothel in the country, but one of the largest in the world. The children (especially girls) in the brothel are extremely vulnerable to abuse and sexual exploitation and live in an environment without appropriate care. So the project focused on ensuring that the girls were protected, and contributed to their empowerment to build a better future for themselves and their families.

The Safe Home project emphasized reintegration of the girls into family settings or wider community through case management system. Children’s cases are supported by professional psychologist to develop individual care plan and assistance is provided for higher education, vocational training, and stipend for attending job placement, which prepare them for self-reliant lives. The project also assesses the potential of every child in transitioning from institutional care to more independent family and community life, and the decision on alternative care arrangement (e.g. kinship care, supervised living arrangement in the form of small group home) is taken by considering the best interest of the child.