Survivor Leadership

From
surviving
to leading.

Hagar's survivor leaders are mentoring families, influencing policy, and reshaping what recovery looks like for thousands of people across Cambodia and Vietnam.

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"I want to help other women and children change their lives."

Aly — Hagar Cambodia Survivor Leader

71
Survivor leaders active in Hagar's Cambodia network, 56 of them women
80%
Of leaders demonstrated improved knowledge in facilitation, child protection, and advocacy
157
Participants at Hagar's annual reflection workshop, including government and civil society
50M
People living in modern slavery worldwide, according to the Global Slavery Index 2023
What this means in practice

Recovery doesn't end with
the individual

For too long, survivors of trafficking, slavery, and abuse have been cast as recipients of care, quiet beneficiaries of programs designed for them, not with them. Hagar believes the deepest expertise on healing lives in those who have done it.

Survivor leadership is what happens when recovery is taken seriously past its own finish line. Hagar creates structured peer networks that transform individual healing into collective action. Survivors become mentors, advocates, and community leaders whose lived experience equips them to reach people that professionals cannot.

"By investing in women as changemakers, this program transforms individual healing into collective action, helping women move from surviving to thriving."

Program staff, Hagar Cambodia

Hagar Cambodia has formalised survivor leadership through its Agents for Change and Success network, recognised by Cambodia's Ministry of Interior. These leaders contribute to care reform discussions at national level, advocate for better services, and provide peer mentoring that creates a ripple effect of healing across communities. Hagar is now working to bring this model to Vietnam.

1

Trauma-informed care

Survivors receive psychological support, safe housing, and wrap-around services through Hagar's recovery programs.

2

Skills and confidence building

Leadership training covers facilitation, communication, child protection, safe migration, and gender-based violence awareness.

3

Peer mentoring and networks

Survivors join structured networks, providing mentoring, reducing stigma, and building community connections that professionals alone cannot reach.

4

Policy influence and advocacy

Leaders engage at sub-national and national levels, contributing to recommendation letters, government consultations, and survivor-informed approaches to prevention.

5

Community prevention

Survivor leaders are embedded in school-based prevention programs, positioned as role models and change agents in the very communities where trafficking begins.

Cambodia — what's been built

Real structures.
Real influence.

Hagar Cambodia has spent years building survivor leadership from the ground up, starting with 500 program alumni and growing into a nationally recognised network.

Government-recognised networks

Cambodia's Agents for Change and Success network was renamed and formally acknowledged by the Ministry of Interior and the National Committee for Counter Trafficking, a remarkable signal of survivor leadership's legitimacy in policy spaces.

Community school prevention

Survivor leaders are integrated into school-based prevention work across communities in Cambodia, positioning them as architects of programs in the communities where they once needed support. Hagar is working to bring this same model to Vietnam.

Policy contributions

Survivors have contributed recommendation letters to NGOs and government institutions and participated in national-level consultations, making survivor-informed approaches to anti-trafficking a practical reality.

Why this matters

The scale of what we're working against

83,000
People estimated to be living in modern slavery in Cambodia, according to the Global Slavery Index 2023
420
Reports of human trafficking received by the AFP in 2024-25, up 10% on the previous year
29.3M
People living in modern slavery in the Asia-Pacific region, the highest of any region in the world
50M
People living in modern slavery globally in 2021, a 25% increase in five years (Global Slavery Index 2023)
"

We could reach thousands more, if we had the resources to bring them together.

Country Director, Hagar Cambodia

Make a gift

Fund the leaders
who reach furthest

Survivor leaders go where professionals cannot: back into communities, into homes, into conversations that only lived experience can open. Your gift funds the networks, training, and structures that make this possible.

Every contribution, whether a single gift or an ongoing commitment, directly sustains Hagar's survivor leadership programs in Cambodia, and the ambition to grow them into Vietnam. One leader trained reaches many. One network funded reshapes a community.

Hagar Australia is a registered charity. Your gift is tax-deductible.
Every dollar supports Hagar's mission to restore lives
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