As a survivor-centered organization, survivor leadership is at the heart of Eleison’s work. Eleison is proud to be an ally of the Philippines Local Survivors Network (PLSN). The PLSN is a group of Filipino survivors of trafficking for sexual exploitation, cybersex trafficking, and sexual violence standing together to advocate for the rights of survivors. In April 2022, an Eleison staff member was invited to travel to Manila for a national gathering of PLSN members as they created their own vision, mission, and goals for their work together as survivor leaders.
As a partner, Eleison supports the PLSN as a resource to help them achieve their own goals and vision as survivor leaders. At the recent national assembly, the PLSN requested their partners to facilitate mental health education for survivor leaders in their network. In response to this request, the Eleison team subsequently met with survivor leaders in Cebu in May, providing education and consultation on healthy ways to identify and manage emotions. We will continue to make ourselves available to support the PLSN through leadership development, mentorship, and advocacy building, as well as access to our community-based mental health and economic empowerment services.
As a next step in our partnership, Eleison will organize a joint gathering of the PLSN and Eleison’s Survivor Leadership Council (SLC), our community advisory board of survivor graduates of Eleison’s programs. At Eleison, SLC members take an active role in peer mentorship and modeling, as well as collaborating with our staff to ensure our programs and research are survivor-centered. As an organization committed to survivor leadership and voice, we are proud to support collaboration between Eleison’s SLC and other national networks of survivor leaders. We remain true to what we believe – survivors’ voices should be heard and centered in all anti-trafficking policy, practice, and advocacy.
