Recovery cannot wait: The flexible fund ensured continuity of trafficking survivors

Photo: Freepick

Recovery is not a single service, a single activity, or a single budget line.

Safe accommodation is needed when a person is at risk, while medication, food, and personal documents are needed as needed, regardless of when one project ends, another begins, or a new funding cycle starts. Court proceedings will not stop while a new source of funding is being secured.

This is precisely why the support received by NGO Atina through the Trag Foundation’s Flexible Fund, with financial support from the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, meant much more than funding for a single project. Over a six-month period, from February to July 2026, it enabled Atina to maintain the continuity of its direct support programme for victims of human trafficking at a time when other funding sources could not cover all the needs of the women and girls who turned to us for support.

By mid-2026, more than 100 women, girls, and other individuals who had survived human trafficking, violence, and various forms of exploitation, or who were at high risk of trafficking, had received support through Atina’s programme. This support went far beyond responding to an immediate crisis: it ranged from food, medication, and other basic necessities to case management, safe accommodation, psychological and legal support, employment assistance, and long-term recovery.

At the same time, the number of foreign nationals requiring specialised support increased significantly. By July 2026, Atina had supported 53 foreign nationals, including people who had experienced human trafficking and labour exploitation. Lack of documentation, insecure residence status, language barriers, and difficulties accessing institutions made their situations even more complex and required coordinated legal, social, administrative, and practical support.

A safe place when returning is not safe

One of the key outcomes of this support was the maintenance of Atina’s licensed supported housing service. During the first half of 2026, five women used this service, four of whom were foreign nationals.

Behind the costs of rent, electricity, internet, telephone, food, and home maintenance are more than just bills. They represent the possibility for a woman who has survived human trafficking to have a safe place to live and not be forced to return to an environment where she may once again be exposed to violence, exploitation, or trafficking.

The flexibility of this support also enabled Atina to respond to needs that cannot always be anticipated or built into a budget in advance: providing urgently needed medication, food, and clothing; assisting with obtaining personal documents and accessing institutions; and responding to other concrete needs that emerged throughout the recovery process.

Access to justice must not depend on a project budget

One particularly important outcome was ensuring legal representation for victims of human trafficking before the courts. During these six months, the Flexible Fund enabled Atina to finance this type of specialised legal support at a total of 13 court hearings.

For a victim of human trafficking, access to justice does not end with filing a criminal complaint or giving a statement. Court proceedings can last for years and may require a woman to speak about her experience of exploitation, testify, protect her rights, and seek compensation for the harm she has suffered. Without continuous and specialised legal support, the formal right to justice can easily remain a right that exists only on paper.

Thanks to the Flexible Fund, the women supported by Atina were not left without legal representation at crucial moments in court proceedings simply because other projects did not provide funding for this type of support.

Recovery does not follow project cycles

Today, a woman may need safe accommodation. Tomorrow, medication. Next week, a lawyer. Then she may need help obtaining documents, finding employment, continuing her education, or taking the next step towards an independent life.

This is precisely the value of flexible funding. It allows support to follow a woman’s actual needs and the pace of her recovery, rather than requiring her life to fit into predefined activities and budget lines.

The Flexible Fund was invaluable precisely in this space – between what projects can anticipate in advance and what happens in the real lives of the women we support.

Ensuring that a funding gap does not become a gap in protection

Without the Flexible Fund, Atina would have faced choices during this period that no organisation working with victims should have to make: which need can wait, which one we can cover and which one we cannot, and which part of the support we can afford to continue.

The significance of this support therefore goes far beyond the individual costs it covered.

The Trag Foundation’s Flexible Fund, with financial support from the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, ensured that a funding gap did not become a protection gap.

It enabled us to remain alongside more than 100 people who needed support and to preserve what matters most when working with victims of human trafficking: continuity, safety, and trust.

Because when a woman takes the step to leave violence and exploitation behind, support must be there to meet her.

Not when the next project begins. But when she needs it.