Fighting for freedom
Be Hers is a Tasmanian foundation dedicated to fighting human trafficking by helping vulnerable women and children. Sarah Aitken meets founding CEO Melody Towns and charts the continued evolution of the growing charity she built from the ground up.
Melody Towns was a young mum when she had an epiphany at a conference: she heard about human trafficking for the first time. Coming home to her small children, she couldn’t stop thinking about the stories she’d heard and knew she had to act.
“The issue broke my heart,” she says. “I gathered some friends together and decided we needed to do something about it.”
She started Be Hers to raise awareness and funds by empowering everyday women to take a stand against slavery, violence and exploitation. Beginning with fundraising events, it gathered some serious coin and soon went beyond the Tasmanian border.
More than a decade later, Melody is as passionate as ever and Be Hers has grown exponentially.
Becoming a registered charity in 2017, Be Hers has expanded its focus to include social enterprise, online awareness, and providing safe community spaces, mentorship programs and school programs, with more to come. It now works locally, nationally, and globally to support women and children vulnerable to exploitation and violence in many forms.
“We support women and children who have been rescued or who are at risk,” Melody adds. Melody can’t share individual stories, out of respect for participants’ privacy, dignity and safety, but she can share examples of the bigger-picture work Be Hers is responsible for, including some recent projects in Asia that have the potential for real intergenerational impact.
“Our partnerships in 2024 included sponsoring a lawyer in the Philippines who puts perpetrators of cybersex trafficking in jail. We also support 12 girls in a shelter in Cambodia, and we have been long-term supporters of a child advocacy centre in Cambodia.”
Trafficking, slavery and exploitation are often seen as overseas issues, but Melody says it can happen to anyone in a vulnerable situation and that can include Tasmanians.
“Exploitation happens here through vulnerabilities such as homelessness, poverty and migration. It can look like labour or sex trafficking, or both,” she says.
“We want to eliminate the vulnerabilities by creating opportunities for women to be supported and thrive."
“We’re working with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to help support survivors by offering long-term, wrap-around support where they feel safe to share their stories.”
At the time of print, Melody was excitedly preparing for the imminent opening of a new arm to the Be Hers hub in Hobart: a cafe.
The hub has already provided women with a safe space to access mentoring opportunities, skills development and counselling in the sewing centre. Located in the CBD, it’s an easy place to drop in to for services or just for a chat.
The new cafe, due to open this autumn, will offer takeaway drinks and pastries from around the world. It will help bring more people and funds through the doors while also providing new training and employment pathways like TAFE-certified barista accreditation.
“We are so excited to see our social enterprise cafe built,” says Melody enthusiastically.
“We are also launching a new hamper range made by the women in our programs called Dream Free and we are looking forward to continuing to work with the AFP and department of social services to expand these programs nationwide.”
