News: Forever launches first London team

Forever, the ministry coordinating the outreach efforts of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the 2012 Olympic Games, has established its first team in London. The team, called Esther’s House, will be working in the Social Justice area, and is situated in Stratford, not far from the Olympic Park.

Esther’s House will be working with women involved in prostitution and human trafficking. “The East End has its brothels, and we will be working into that area,” says Lucie Barnsdale, Forever’s Social Justice Coordinator and team leader of the new team. “We will work with existing women on the streets or in the brothels.”

But the team will also be trying to help address the issue of human trafficking. “When a country hosts the Olympics tens of thousands of people come in, fuelling a demand for sex workers,” comments Lucie. “That leads to trafficking on a huge scale. For the London Games, lots of the trafficked women are from Eastern Europe. They come because of poverty and they’re looking for opportunities: they’re conned by pimps with the promise of a better life, lots of money etc. But there will also be girls from across the world, and even the UK – girls in schools in London who get pimped and trafficked.”

Joining Lucie at his early stage will be Sarah Willson, who describes the reason for the name Esther’s House: “Esther is such a representation of God’s heart for women. She was so obedient to God, so humble, and had such dignity. All things we want for the women we will work with.”

“With the Olympics being in Stratford, the Police will clean the streets regularly,” remarks Lucie. “So our project may be more brothel-based or working with existing women on the streets. We will work with the Street Pastors scheme and the Police, and link up with other projects in London.

“I plan to be here long-term, to see Esther’s House fully up and running. I’d love to start a drop-in centre and then a tea-shop where the women who’ve successfully gone through the exit programme can work for a salary.”

Currently, as well as the two Forever full-timers, Esther House also has two part-time volunteers interested in helping. “Ideally, we’d have about six full-time and six part-time people,” observes Lucie.

Esther’s House is a partnership between Azalea and YWAM England. Azalea is a charity that works with women involved in prostitution in Luton, running a drop-in centre and outreach programme. Azalea will provide the skills and policies and YWAM the support.

Interested in joining Esther’s House? The team is looking for people – not just people to work with the women, but also good administrators, prayer networkers, and people to raise awareness of the trafficking problem. Contact Lucie on lucie.esthershouse@gmail.com.