Survivors of modern slavery enjoy a royal visit
Survivors of modern slavery enjoy a royal visit
Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie and Julia de Boinville speak to Nigel Long, leader of The Salvation Army’s music therapy sessions for survivors of modern slavery, London.
Survivors of modern slavery in the United Kingdom, supported by The Salvation Army, recently welcomed special guests, Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie of York and Julia de Boinville, co-founders of The Anti-Slavery Collective, to a music therapy session.
After joining in a fun warm-up and breathing exercises, the guests sat back to enjoy an informal performance of songs prepared by the group of men and women who have been sharing through music every week in recent months, under the leadership of specialist support worker and musician Nigel Long. After the performance, Princess Eugenie and Julia chatted with survivors and support workers and heard about the positive impact the sessions were having on survivors’ wellbeing.
Jenny Thompson oversees The Salvation Army’s London outreach service, where she manages a team of specialist support workers who work with individual survivors of modern slavery in the community to advocate for them and help them access support to recover from their experiences of exploitation. This is via the government’s Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract, through which The Salvation Army and its partners have helped more than 18,000 survivors to rebuild their lives in the past 11 years through a network of safe houses and outreach services across England and Wales.
The singing group performs a series of songs for their special guests.
“Local Salvation Army churches and community centres ... provide a key safe space for the survivors we work with,” she says. “This particular church has been hosting this music session for almost a year now. “Having our special guests come to listen to them singing and chat to them has been a tremendous boost and really helped with their preparation for performing to more audiences in the future.
“These sessions are about so much more than music and singing skills. They are about building confidence and giving survivors space to have fun and share with each other, at the same time as getting support from our team of specialist support workers.”
During the performance, two singers introduced their favourite song, Abba’s ‘I have a dream’ and explained why it was so important to them.
One said: “The next song is my favourite because there’s a part of it that says, ‘I believe in angels’. For me, The Salvation Army are angels from God who saved me from the dark and gave me hope for my dreams. Now I feel more confident, and I am blessed that you gave us help.”
A second woman said: “This song is important to me. Back then, I was a person with a lack of ambition, my dreams were all gone because I didn’t feel safe. Then, one day, when I was so afraid and felt always in the dark, angels brought me from that darkness into the light, and that was you, The Salvation Army. Now I’m so thankful that I can walk in the street and no one can harm me. I feel comfortable every day and every time I come here. I want to thank you for giving me the strength to face all my trials and making my dreams come alive again.”
The group plans to share their musical talents with others by performing at care homes and with other groups in the local community.
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