HERA - Her Equality, Rights & Autonomy

HERA stands for Her Equality, Rights and Autonomy and is an international charity that works with Women survivors of human trafficking, conflict and other forms of violence, to pursue their aspirations and ambitions for a better, more independent life. 

Each year HERA runs a training and mentoring programme that mobilises business and academic expertise, creativity, and resources to prevent and redress the £115 billion per annum business of human trafficking and re-trafficking.

The HERA training programme this year welcomed 25 Women for an intensive entrepreneurial course at The Innovation Hub in Imperial College London. The Women received lessons in the foundations of running a small business and working in the corporate world, run by HERA's corporate partners. This will be followed by 11 months of monthly sessions (Wednesday Wisdoms) and individual mentoring to help the Women find the right path for them.

We were thrilled to be invited to speak on the first day of the programme and talk to the students about how Postcards Home operates and the highs and lows of running your own business. We love speaking with other small business owners and aspiring Female Founders, so this was a complete pleasure. The Women were so engaged and kept us on our toes during the Q&A session.

At the end of July we went back to The Innovation Hub on the last day of the programme and sat on the judging panel to hear the small business pitches the students had been preparing.  We were blown away by the ideas and detailed marketing and financial plans each group had created under the guidance of HERA's corporate partners. 

The overall quality of the pitches and small business ideas led to a heated debate between the judges, but we managed to agree on our favourites. But really, every group was exceptional in its own way!

We know that the 2019 HERA cohort are going to all go on to achieve incredible things in collaboration with their HERA mentors, and we can't wait to hear from them in their future roles!

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