Our founder, Helen Bamber, worked as a nurse in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, providing assistance to survivors after the end of World War II. She witnessed first-hand the suffering that humans inflict on one another and the terrible, sometimes irrecoverable loss of self that extreme cruelty causes. Throughout her life, she worked to uphold the human rights for those who faced the worst kinds of inhumanity – those who had suffered torture, trafficking, slavery, the effects of war and other forms of extreme cruelty.
On returning to Britain in 1947, Helen was appointed to the Committee for the Care of Children from Concentration Camps and became responsible for 722 orphaned children who had survived Auschwitz.
In 1961, she joined the newly founded Amnesty International and in 1974, she helped establish the organisation’s Medical Group. She helped develop a systematic approach to documenting the physical and psychological injuries arising from torture around the world.
In 1984, Helen founded the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (now Freedom from Torture). There she recognised that for a person to make sustained recovery they must feel safe, and she ensured that torture survivors were provided with therapy alongside legal protection and the prevention of poverty and homelessness.
Helen was committed to ‘bearing witness’ - the act of listening to, observing, and acknowledging the suffering of others - especially those who have endured trauma, injustice, or violence - and ensuring that their stories are neither silenced nor forgotten. To bear witness means advocating for change, supporting healing, or amplifying the voices of those whose testimonies might otherwise be ignored. It recognises the profound human need for one’s pain and survival to be seen and acknowledged.
In 2005, Helen founded the Helen Bamber Foundation.
We were founded in the same year that saw the introduction Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking In Human Beings (ECAT). The purpose of ECAT is to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings and to protect the rights of the survivors of trafficking. With the rising numbers of individuals being forced into sexual, labour and other forms of exploitation, it was clear that something had to be done to help these people.
And so the journey of the Helen Bamber Foundation began, with the belief that all people must be treated fairly, regardless of where they were born.
- We developed our model of all-encompassing care.
- We have supported thousands of Ssurvivors.
- We have changed government policy and practice.
- We continue to learn from the survivors with whom we work.
Our continued journey is fuelled by the knowledge that survivors can and do find the strength to recover and rebuild their lives.