Helping-Hand 2026: Breaking the cycle

Hayley Still introduces the 2026 Helping-Hand Appeal, which focuses on the Army’s work to help women and girls vulnerable to exploitation.

The temperature in Jashore, Bangladesh, hovers in the mid-30s. While monsoon season is coming to an end, humidity clings to the air, intensifying the heat. On the main road, drivers of easy bikes and autorickshaws – known locally as ‘CNG’s, after the fuel that powers them – jostle for space, horns blaring to announce their presence. Their passengers are bound for work, the market, school, home. It’s a chaotic choreography as vehicles thread their way through the crowd.

Turn down a single-lane road and the volume softens, although it lingers in the background. Overhead a tangle of power lines connects the buildings. Halfway along, you reach The Salvation Army’s Health Care and Counselling Centre.

As you ascend the winding stairs to the third floor, the noise of the street gives way to the sound of something hopeful. Two classrooms embrace groups of children leaning in to hear their teacher’s lesson – the alphabet spoken and echoed back, numbers carefully etched on chalkboards.

This classroom is a haven from home, which lies just a few metres away in the city’s brothel district, five narrow lanes where their mothers are trapped in a cycle of exploitation.

The paths that lead women there are many – debt, deception, abandonment – but choice is not one of them. In Jashore, as in so many places, choice is an illusion dressed up as opportunity. The project responds with a simple conviction: if exploitation is a cycle, then intervention must be a rhythm – proximate, consistent, reliable. This is quiet, radical work, rooted in compassion and sustained by professional resolve.

For more than three decades The Salvation Army has maintained a steadfast presence here, evolving and adapting the focus of its project to meet changing needs. The current phase, which began in 2024, prioritises community-driven solutions, building trust, listening to women to understand their challenges and engaging them in setting priorities.

Alongside regular outreach – where a Salvation Army chaplain meets women in their homes within the brothel to listen, advise and support – community organisers travel to neighbouring villages to raise awareness of child marriage, gender discrimination and human trafficking, to drive social change and address the factors that feed exploitation, tackling the problem at its root.

This situation is complex and nuanced and there isn’t a single, simple solution. Women need stable income to be able to pay off debts, exit the brothel and support themselves. The Salvation Army partners local organisations to provide skills training and pathways to just and sustainable income opportunities and employment. Staff practise trauma-informed care, recognising that leaving the brothel is only the beginning of a longer journey of healing and rebuilding.

The drop-in centre for children opened in 2021. It was born out of the concerns that the women shared with project staff: that their children would be drawn into the same life as them. The children’s team provide education, creative activities and nutritious meals in a safe, caring and engaging environment.

Each weekday morning, the staff gather for reflection and worship. As well as spending time in prayer, reading Scripture and singing together, this space offers an opportunity to speak openly about the concerns that weigh heavily on their hearts.

Barna, one of the children’s workers, outlines the pastoral and practical care they provide: ‘If children don’t arrive at the centre, I go over to the brothel to collect them. We give them snacks and make sure they have the appropriate clothes and books for school. For the children who are still going to school, we check that they have done their homework. For those that don’t go to school, we play with them a little and then teach them basic lessons.

For Barna, this isn’t just a job, it’s a vocation: ‘This centre is changing children’s lives. Without the centre, the children can easily get into trouble. We are educating them and teaching them a good way to live. The most beautiful thing is when I see children who have been to the centre, who are grown up and are in a good place now. When I see that they are doing well, it brings joy to my heart.’

Around the world, The Salvation Army is walking alongside women and girls as they claim their rights, expand their opportunities and find the freedom to flourish. It’s about challenging unjust attitudes and practices that keep women and girls trapped in violence and poverty. It’s about honouring the dignity of every person. It’s about creating pathways to freedom.

The 2026 Helping-Hand Appeal is supporting the Army’s work to support women and children who have experienced or are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Gender-based violence takes many forms and is most often perpetrated by men against women and girls – one in three women will experience violence in their lifetime. This is not confined to one country, culture, class or generation but women living in poverty are disproportionately affected. Will you stand with women and girls as they reclaim their future?

How can I help women facing injustice around the world?

The Helping-Hand Appeal is an annual appeal to support international Salvation Army projects responding to poverty and injustice. Money raised for the 2026 Helping-Hand Appeal will support international women and girls projects.

• £75 could help establish and train a community-based child marriage prevention committee
• £180 could fund a human rights seminar for women experiencing sexual exploitation
• £450 could provide educational support for 25 children
• £1,125 could run a children’s drop-in centre for six months
• £2,250 could run a children’s drop-in centre for an entire year

Pray for…

Safety, healing and freedom for women and girls

Pray that those experiencing violence and exploitation will find protection, support and paths to freedom. May unjust attitudes and practices be dismantled so that the God-given dignity of every person is recognised and honoured.

Strength and wisdom for The Salvation Army

Pray that God will equip the staff at the Salvation Army project in Jashore with compassion, resilience and guidance as they accompany women towards safe, sustainable futures.

Protection and flourishing for children

Pray that children growing up in the brothel district will be kept safe from abuse and neglect, and that the centre’s learning and play spaces will nurture their wellbeing, education and hope.

Impactful community outreach

Lift up the community organisers who travel to neighbouring villages to raise awareness of child marriage and gender-based violence. Pray that their efforts will create lasting social change and address the root causes of exploitation.