If you have found your way here, you are welcome. However you arrived, and whatever you are carrying, you do not have to explain yourself at the door.
This is the first thing we have written on this site, so let me use it to say plainly what Women of the World is, who it is for, and what we hope it becomes.
It started with coffee
WOW did not begin with a plan or a mission statement. It began with conversations. Two women across a table, one cup going cold while the other one talked.
Some of those women had survived things most people never have to imagine. Trafficking. Exploitation. Violence from people who were supposed to be safe. Some of them survived Jeffrey Epstein and the network around him.
What nearly all of them said, in one way or another, was the same thing. They wanted to be heard before they were assessed. They wanted a room where the first question was not “what do you need from us,” but simply “how are you.”
That is a smaller thing than a program. It is also, it turns out, a rare one.
What WOW is
Women of the World is a circle. Not an agency, not a waiting room, not a queue you take a number for.
We are people who have agreed to show up for each other. Some of us are survivors. Some of us are the friends, neighbors and family of survivors. Some of us simply decided we were done looking away.
The whole promise fits in one line: supporting and uniting each other, everywhere.
Who this is for
You, if any of this sounds like your life:
- You have survived trafficking, exploitation, or gender-based violence.
- You survived Epstein or the network around him, and you are tired of being a footnote in somebody else’s story.
- You have been harmed in some other way, and you are looking for a quieter place to begin again.
- None of that is your story, but you love someone it happened to, and you want to be useful.
And yes, men. This is a women’s movement, and men are not merely tolerated in it. Fathers, brothers, partners, sons, friends. Men who have been hurt themselves, and men who want to help. There is a chair.
What we actually do
Three things. We would rather do three things properly than twenty things badly.
We listen. All the way through. Before advice, before referrals, before anyone suggests a next step. Your pace, your words, your timeline.
We stand with you. Practical help where we have it. A warm introduction where we do not. And the plain promise that you are not doing this by yourself.
We welcome everyone. Different stories, same room. Where you come from, what you do, and who knows your name all get left at the door.
What we are trying to achieve
The honest answer is bigger than a support group and smaller than a revolution.
We want more cooperation between women and less competition. That sounds soft until you have watched how often a woman is asked to earn her own seat before she is allowed to help anybody else into one.
We want justice that looks like patience, and fairness that looks like attention.
Most of all, we want asking for help to become an ordinary thing rather than a last resort. If we manage nothing else, we would like to make it easy and meaningful for everybody. That is the whole job.
What this is not
We should be clear about this, because being vague helps nobody.
WOW is not a crisis service. We are not therapists, lawyers, or investigators. We do not staff a phone around the clock, and we will not pretend we do.
If you are in immediate danger, please call your local emergency number first.
If you are being trafficked, or you believe someone else is, the National Human Trafficking Hotline in the United States is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in more than 200 languages. You can call 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. It is confidential, and it is answered by trained people.
We will still be here afterwards.
Ways to be part of this
None of these are required. You can read every letter we send and never write a word back, and you are still part of the circle.
- Join. Take the monthly letter. Come to a gathering when one happens near you.
- Host. A kitchen, a community room, a backyard. Chairs and a kettle really is enough.
- Share. Your story, if and when you want to. Not one day before.
- Help. An hour, a skill, an introduction, a ride.
One more thing
If you have read all of this and decided it is not for you, that is a good outcome too. Knowing what does not fit is part of finding what does.
But if something here sounded like a room you have been looking for, come and find us. Pull up a chair. The kettle is on.