Aly's Story — Hagar Australia EOFY 2026
Aly, Hagar survivor leader, photographed in Melbourne during the April 2026 visit

Melbourne, April 2026

EOFY Appeal 2026

A healed survivor is the beginning of the end of trafficking, slavery, and abuse.

Aly — Hagar staff member and survivor leader, Cambodia

Aly was abandoned at birth. She came to Hagar with nothing and did not trust anyone. Years of sustained, dignified care changed everything. Today she mentors survivors, advises policymakers, and leads prevention work in the communities most at risk.

Give before 30 June

Gifts before 30 June are fully tax-deductible.

76
Survivor leaders in Hagar's Cambodia network
30+
Years walking alongside survivors
50M
People living in modern slavery worldwide
30 June
Tax-deductible gift deadline

She hid in her room and cried.
Hagar kept showing up anyway.

Aly was abandoned at birth in a rubbish bin in Cambodia. She grew up in an overcrowded shelter where she was malnourished, denied schooling, and exploited throughout childhood. At fourteen she was violated, expelled while pregnant, and left entirely alone. She survived on the streets until she found her way to Hagar.

She did not trust anyone. For two months she hid in her room and cried. Hagar's team kept showing up. Not with quick fixes. Not with a short-term program. But with something far more powerful: a long, patient, dignified presence.

Hagar walked with Aly through her pregnancy. Helped her become a mother. Helped her build skills and find work. Helped her rebuild trust in others and in herself. When life became hard again, as it does, Hagar was still there.

And then something remarkable happened. Aly stepped forward.

Aly speaking at a meeting during her April 2026 visit to Melbourne

Melbourne, April 2026

Aly presenting with confidence at a Melbourne boardroom event, April 2026
"
I want to help other women and children change their lives.
Aly — Hagar Staff Member and Survivor Leader

Today, Aly advises policymakers. She mentors women still in the dark. She leads prevention work in the communities most at risk, including the kinds of communities she came from. She spots what trained professionals miss, because she has lived it.

She is one of 76 survivor leaders now active in Hagar's Cambodia network, a network formally recognised by the Cambodian government. She is proof of what becomes possible when someone is given enough time, enough care, and enough belief that her life has value.

Give before 30 June

This is how we win. Through survivors. Healed, equipped, and leading from within.

50 million people are living in modern slavery worldwide. 29 million of them are in the Asia-Pacific. Hagar has learned something in over thirty years of this work: the most powerful force against exploitation does not come from the outside. It comes from within the communities where trafficking takes hold, carried by people who know the cost of it firsthand.

A healed survivor is the beginning of the end of human trafficking.

Survivor Care

Hagar's survivor care is not a short-term program. It is a sustained, dignified commitment to walking alongside each person for as long as it takes. That means safe accommodation, medical and psychological support, trauma-informed counselling, vocational training, economic empowerment, and family reintegration, held together by people who simply refuse to give up.

Aly's journey is the proof of this model. She needed years. Hagar stayed. And because Hagar stayed long enough, something extraordinary became possible: Aly did not just recover. She became a leader. Today she is a Hagar staff member, a counsellor, a mentor. The care she received is now the care she gives.

Prevention

Prevention is most powerful from the inside. Survivor leaders like Aly return to the communities where exploitation takes hold carrying something no professional can offer: lived knowledge of what trafficking looks like, and the credibility to speak into it before it begins. They sit with families still in the dark. They spot vulnerability before it is exploited. They reach people that formal services will never reach.

Hagar's survivor leaders are embedded in school-based prevention programs, active in community protection structures, and formally recognised by the Cambodian government as agents of change. The network is growing. Your gift is part of what makes that possible.

Justice

Justice is not just legal action. It is the reshaping of the systems, policies, and institutions that once failed survivors. Hagar pursues justice through victim identification and support, legal advocacy, prosecution support, and sustained engagement with law enforcement and government bodies.

Survivor leaders bring something irreplaceable to this work. Aly has sat at policy tables. She has contributed to recommendation letters to government institutions. She has helped reshape what survivor-informed justice actually looks like in practice. Her voice in those rooms is the compounding return on every year of care that came before it.

Aly speaking to an audience during her April 2026 visit to Melbourne

Melbourne, April 2026

Aly with colleague Sreyna at a Hagar Workshop on Trauma-Informed Care in Phnom Penh

Hagar Workshop on Trauma-Informed Care, Phnom Penh