HERA (Her equality, rights and autonomy)

Mission

Our wish is to give the women on the HERA programme the tools, the confidence, the know how, the mentor support and the impetus to achieve their aspirations, whether this be to set up their own business or to continue their studies.

Programs

HERA works in partnerships with NGOs, government initiatives, and academic institutions, to help women achieve economic autonomy and self-sufficiency; conditions which are necessary to create and sustain alternatives to dangerous sex work and forced labour. HERA promotes an entrepreneurial approach to women's career development and choices as a contrast to traditional, subservient or passive roles that may have been imposed on them in the past. For women taking part in the programme, there are two major components; the first is an intensive course on entrepreneurship run in partnership with a business school: and the second component is a 9-12 month relationship with a professional mentor recruited by HERA. Recruited mentors undergo training in coaching skills and ways of dealing with the issues they may come across when mentoring their proteges.

Current Projects on GlobalGiving

Help trafficked women in UK become entrepreneurs

Personnel Overview

Angela Smith-Morgan - Executive Director
Angela is a management consultant by background, spending three years with PA Consulting Group, and six years working directly with small businesses at Business Link, specialising in advising family-run firms. She taught as a visiting lecturer at Greenwich University Business School in Entrepreneurship and Control of Small Businesses, and wants now to bring this experience into the charity sector.

Lynellyn Long - Founder and Chair of Trustees
Lynellyn is one of the founders of HERA. She was Chief of Mission of the International Organisation for Migration in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2000-2002 when IOM repatriated over 400 trafficked women to the same economic and social circumstances that caused them to risk dangerous migration. She founded Hera to prevent re-trafficking and to support trafficked women in their economic reintegration.

Maury Peiperl - Professor of Leadership and Strategic Change at IMD Lausanne, Trustee, Training leader for Hera
Maury teaches in the MBA program and the Orchestrating Winning Performance Program, as well as directing and teaching on tailored executive education programs for numerous companies. From 1992 to 2004 he was a professor at London Business School. He has also held visiting or affiliate appointments at the University of Maryland (USA), HEC (France), and Templeton College, Oxford (UK).

Personnel Statistics

Anglea Smith-Morgan,
Executive Director
Founded in 2005
Employees: 0
Volunteers: 0