Aruna Project: An impact-Driven Athleisure Brand
Founded with the intention of supporting victims of human trafficking, Aruna is now an impact-driven athleisure brand that supports survivors of sex trafficking through employment and holistic care. Since its inception in 2009, Aruna has centered its mission around a model using a ‘flywheel effect’. This is done through incorporating elements of sustainability, awareness, holistic care and training and survivor-autonomy with the intention of creating an organization that perpetuates an upward cycle of ethical labor and slow-fashion products.
Aruna synthesizes elements of both the non-profit and business world in its organizational design, and most importantly keeps survivors at the center of their mission. Each product is hand-made by an Artisan (a woman who is freed, employed, and empowered) and tagged with their name. During Aruna Runs, participants can run for a specific woman by name, rooting their advocacy in full support of survivors as they raise funds and awareness for the Aruna Project.
The resources accumulated through Aruna’s fundraising are used to work with women in brothels and provide support to survivors through the training center. The training center follows a relational matrix to build trust and meet the individualized needs of each survivor wherever they are in their healing journey. Aruna also provides Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Skill & Trade Development programs to promote survivor agency and help them achieve both physical and mental safety as well as financial independence.
Aruna uses a holistic care model to employ and support survivors through the Freedom Business, which complies with a competitive wage, health care benefits, retirement funds and on-going counseling. By supporting survivors holistically, Aruna helps them achieve autonomy and freedom, thereby reducing the risk of recidivation back into trafficking.
Born into a family affected by poverty and substance abuse, Priya was both invisible to her home community and hypervisible to predators in the trafficking industry, looking for vulnerable individuals in her village using the promise of viable work in the city for young women. At just 13 years old, Priya was recruited by a trafficker and sold for less than $400 USD to a brothel owner. With no other options and no route for escape, Priya was subject to physical, mental and sexual abuse by this brothel for years. Five years later, due to the same unsafe circumstances and lack of personal agency, Priya became pregnant with her first child.
Against all odds, she carried her son to full term while continuing to endure relentless abuse by the brothel and sex buyers. Egregiously unjust circumstances did not relent for Priya as she grieved the death of her baby just four days after his birth. Within the next year, Priya was forced to abort another pregnancy and learned that she had become HIV positive. Priya suffered both physically and mentally as the virus took over her body and she was culturally ostracized and condemned for her sickness. This is one of the most challenging moments for Priya to talk about. She describes hopelessness and despair, telling us how she was discarded into the street by the brothel when sex buyers were no longer willing to pay for her body as HIV took over.
Priya began to recover and her health started steadily improving. When she was well enough, she was brought to an aftercare home and offered opportunities to develop trade skills. She had a particular affinity for tailoring training. This is how Aruna found its first employee. Priya tells us, “I never imagined life free from the brothel because I was a slave there. I tried to run away but never succeeded. I thought I have to live there till death.” Her tone lifts with hope and joy as she speaks of her freedom, “I want to enjoy my freedom, do things in my way, like get up late on holidays.” She continues, “and to become a master in tailoring.”
It is because of people like Priya that Aruna has built its business model around survivor-empowerment and advocacy. Dressember is proud to partner with brands and organizations that share our parallel goals of survivor-empowerment and creating alternative solutions for groups that have been marginalized. We are proud to partner with the Aruna Project who has employed almost 100 Artisans (women freed, employed, empowered), impacted over 250 children, siblings, family and friends who are no longer at risk of trafficking and served another 3000 women in the brothel system. Additionally, the Aruna Project employs US sex trafficking survivors in their US office. With its network of a training center, two safe transitional housing facilities, and a production facility where their products are handmade by ethically employed Artisans, the Aruna Project is headstrong in its mission to tangibly mobilize in its advocacy against human trafficking.
Aamina Yoga Tote is both versatile and fashion forward, as it was designed with function in mine, using materials that protect from the elements. Each tote is hand-made by a survivor as part of Aruna’s mission to provide ethical employment for their brand. Aamina Yoga Tote was named for one of these artisans and her story is interwoven into this carefully crafted product. Purchasing this tote not only provides the customer with a beautiful, practical bag, but also supports fair living wages and slow fashion.
Functional features include oversized pockets, water repellent fabric, abrasion resistant finish, strong webbing handles, and interior pockets. The front exterior pocket has zippers on both sides, allowing it to open as a yoga mat or jacket carrier. The faux leather pullers on these zippers add an elevated detail to an athletic bag. On the back of the tote, a smaller exterior pocket is made for those items that need to be accessible but safe, such as passports, credit cards, and cell phones. In the interior, there is a larger zipper pocket that can hold shoes, dirty clothes, snacks, or anything else that might need to be separated from other times in your bag. The exterior fabric is made from recycled nylon and polyester yarns, and a polycarbonate coating is responsible for many of the functionality features. This finish repels water, making cleaning this bag extra simple. This finish also keeps the tote from getting scuffs and scratches.
The Aamina is the perfect next addition to your accessory repertoire. It is a purchase you can feel confident in because this product is functional, stylish, ethically made, versatile, and contributes to positively benefiting the community of female survivors around the world through ethical labor and support.
Dressember Advocates are invited to use the discount code "Dress10" for 10% off their Aruna Project purchase.
About the Author
Becca Wong is a junior at the University of Michigan studying Sociology and Social Work with a minor in data science. She aspires to reform trauma-informed legal systems and is passionate about mental health, survivor advocacy, and social justice. In her free time, she loves curating playlists, taking care of her plants and spending time with her friends.