Sophie Hayes is the pseudonym of a British woman who was trafficked from the United Kingdom to Italy for sex trafficking. 

Today, her story is one of resilience.

Sophie has used her story to inspire others, and she has become the face of change and advocacy for victims. The Sophie Hayes Foundation supports survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking through a variety of programs. According to the Foundation, it has supported nearly 700 survivors from more than 57 countries across all age groups. The Foundation's programs are designed to help survivors gain skills, including education, that they need to achieve freedom, including for the job market. In addition, some survivors have been able to pursue higher education.

Sophie's story

The person who abducted Sophie was not a stranger, but her best friend, whom she had met in northern England and with whom she had been in a committed relationship for five years. As it later turned out, this time was used to groom her and learn personal details that would later be used to trap and manipulate her.

Love

Love is a powerful weapon of exploitation in the wrong hands. Contrary to common misconceptions, sex trafficking rarely begins with abuse by strangers. Instead, victims are deceived by romantic or familial love to manipulate them into cooperating in their own exploitation.

The project at the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool has had a great positive response so far. Relatives of Sophie Hayes' family were present for the official opening of the Freedom Quilt, as were over 70% of the survivors. CEO Red Godfrey-Sagoo, in an exclusive interview with Alethea Magazine, talks about how the beauty of the Freedom Quilt touched visitors, but more importantly, highlighted how people are treated as slaves in our modern day. It is also instructive to learn what is meant by modern human trafficking and how widespread it is.

December 29, 2022

Interview Directory 

LEADER

Name: Red Godfrey-Sagoo

Occupation: CEO Sophie Hayes Foundation

Statement: "Love is a powerful weapon of exploitation in the wrong hands."

Message: “Escape does not mean freedom, freedom comes from independence and independence comes for employability and education."

"At the time we did not imagine it would become such a historically valuable piece of artwork and it would be housed at the International Slavery Museum."

How did your cooperation with Liberty come about, which is now exhibited in the Liverpool Slavery Museum?

In 2021 the Foundation was Liberty's charity partner receiving donations from customers etc. However, for December 2021 the Foundation was considering an in-person event to mark 10 years of supporting survivors of human trafficking. However, due to COVID it was difficult to plan or schedule anything, so we went to Liberty and asked if there were any creative collaborations that survivors and Liberty could work on to celebrate the anniversary. The result of this conversation was Liberty's offer of fabrics and the idea of a quilt made by survivors was born. At the time we did not imagine it would become such a historically valuable piece of artwork and it would be housed at the International Slavery Museum, more poignant as Sophie Hayes herself was from the north not far from Liverpool.

How has participation in the textile project been received by your participants so far?

Most survivors that created panels for the Freedom Quilt had never sewn before and were nervous of what was expected and what the project was, even the concept of quilting was unknown. But over time they fully embraced the Freedom Quilt, this was their time and space to reflect themselves in fabric, this was for them about them. We were able to take 70% of the survivors to the official launch of the Freedom Quilt at the museum, a day which no one present will ever forget. The survivors poured over the exhibition as they spotted their panels, shared their stories with other survivors and felt a sense of pride. One survivor shared “my life has not amounted to much, but now I know my children and their children can come and see my mark on life in this quilt”.

And the response from the public, how have you experienced this so far?

We have had a heart message board running at different locations and the overall messages have been of shock that humans are treated as slaves in today’s day and age, but overall, of love and encouragement. What the public also resonated with was that both Sophie and her Mother created panels for the project. Sophie’s mother had never publicly made a statement this was the first time and Sophie shared a message of how this was a quilt of all victims not just her.

I watched your YouTube video, and I am completely shocked. How do you define human trafficking, which cases are we dealing with here?

Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women, or men using force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception, or other means for the purpose of exploitation.

• Sophie was trafficked to Italy by someone who had groomed her for years a “so called friend”,.
• All the women we have and are supporting are trafficked, 98% trafficked to the UK our eldest survivor is 70!
• Please note trafficking is NOT smuggling, which is currently conflated with trafficking.
• Smuggling is when a person agrees to enter a country, they have no legal right (they give consent to being moved) trafficking there is no consent.

What is the Survivor Learning Area?

All our survivors have access to the learning area where they can see and apply for placements, volunteering , internships etc and thousands of free online education courses.

It is their ongoing development area, so they keep growing and learning.

Love is a powerful weapon of exploitation in the wrong hands.

“Escape does not mean freedom, freedom comes from independence and independence comes for employability and education."

How is it with violence against women now especially also in the time of recession in England?

VAWG is on the increase especially for women who are already vulnerable, our survivors complex needs and uncertain legal statuses due to the current hostile environment makes them more prone to re-trafficking. The women receiving any government funding receive about £36 per week, this in the current recession makes them vulnerable to re-trafficking. Also, less than 40% of our survivors have legal status, i.e., the rest are waiting for decisions on successful asylum claims, this puts them in danger to further exploitation. As many survivors will tell you “escape does not mean freedom, freedom comes from independence and independence comes for employability and education”.

Since your foundation, what have you been able to achieve and what do you still want to achieve?

Most of our survivors are from cultures religions and backgrounds where access to work or education was restricted or denied, so therefore, we believe learning how to be employable is vital for survivors to be sustainably free. Free to work and live independently.

• We have supported over 700 survivors over the past few years to:
• Navigate their escape to a learning environment where they understand what being employable means
• Gain work experience and references for CV’s
• Learn basic digital tools i.e., Teams, Microsoft word, excel etc
• Become functioning members of their communities
• We have created a survivor network CREW (Creative Empowered Resilient Women) that supports all our survivors as well as informs our mission and outcomes.
  
• We have collaborated with Liberty and ISM to create the first ever permanent UK collection of survivor voices through the Freedom Quilt.
• We have collaborated with Hewlett Packard Enterprises on a survivor led and survivor informed free series of “Online Cyber Security” trainings which will launch in March 2023 globally, for any survivor anywhere.
• We are recognised as the only UK charity solely focused on employability skills and access to education for survivors as the path to sustainable freedom

What do we want to achieve:

• We want to increase the number of businesses we work with in our PartnerUp campaign so all our survivors have real life experiences in placements, volunteering, shadowing, internships etc
• We want to build our 12-month employability programme into a resource which we can share with other small organisations across the world, so charities like ours across can support survivors become employable

How can people support your foundation?

It costs £1000 to support a survivor for 12 months we want to ensure each survivor has a chance of staying free after escape, regular giving helps:£10 can provide one month’s WIFI access or travel to one in-person session​

• £60 can provide a tablet
• £160 can provide a years’ worth of travel
• £1000 will provide full access to our workshops, coaching and work experience programmes, helping a woman towards a life of sustainable freedom.
• Become a Freedom Circle member and support 3 women over 3 years
• A commitment of £1000 per year for 3 years (£83.33 a month)
  

Become a PartnerUp partner

By offering Skills shadowing. Volunteering, Work Experience, Placements, Internships or Practical support, you can change a life forever.

Whatever size of organisation you are, you have the chance to change a life. Improved mental health and social stability, confidence and resilience building balanced with practical skills for employability and access to education; this is the impact our programme provides, with your support.

Secure sustainable freedom for survivors - join our PartnerUp initiative.

Volunteer with us

We have a huge need for community volunteers and support volunteers to work with survivors.

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The so called Freedom Quilt, a project of Charity Sophie Hayes Foundation with fabrics by Liberty ©Pete Carr