Saman Organic – FreeFrom

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

The Netherlands

Number of survivors served in a year

Less than 20

Languages

Spanish

Groups most commonly served

Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Women

Type of organization

Small business Social enterprise Volunteer-led organization

Program model(s)

Holistic crisis response Survivor-centered income generation Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

samanorganic.nl@gmail.com

Service Area(s)

The Netherlands (national)

Successes and Impact

“I believe the greatest achievement is . . . that there have been women who started out completely depressed and emerged from it, grew, and today they are survivors. The fact that one [survivor] helps another, that is the greatest achievement we’ve had. [And] the fact that other [survivors] haven’t necessarily helped, but have overcome that situation [of violence] and now have normal lives. . . . They have separated [from their harm-doer] and now have housing and are working. Those have been our greatest achievements.”¹

Saman Organic supports Spanish-speaking migrant women from Latin America who are subjected to intimate partner violence in the Netherlands. Through a powerful combination of home-based business training, emotional healing, and peer mentorship, the organization helps survivors build economic autonomy and navigate complex legal systems. As a result of this approach, survivors have successfully maintained custody of their children and created safer circumstances for themselves, even while managing the additional complexities of their immigration status.

Building economic security with home-based entrepreneurship

Saman Organic has successfully created pathways to economic independence that work within the constraints faced by migrant survivors, especially those with children. Through their home-based soap-making enterprise, participants generate meaningful income while maintaining the flexibility needed to care for their children and fostering community among survivors. This process creates space for both economic activity and healing, with one participant explaining, “While we’re labeling, we talk a lot about self-love, about the process of empowering ourselves a little bit. While we’re making soap, you can talk about whatever you want. We take advantage of that time.”

By establishing legitimate income streams from home, survivors achieve the economic stability that is prioritized under Dutch custody laws. In this way, Saman Organic has helped survivors retain custody of their children while creating safer, more independent living situations for themselves and their families. Instead of depending on their partners, survivors are now able to generate income, make informed decisions, and live more independently and safely.

Survivors create safe spaces to build self-esteem and mutual support networks

Saman Organic has created a powerful cycle of healing and leadership among Spanish-speaking migrant women survivors. The organization’s holistic approach focuses on emotional healing first, recognizing that building self-esteem is foundational to all other changes. “I think that the first area of support has to be emotional, doing this work of self-love and setting boundaries.”

This approach has yielded remarkable results. Multiple women who initially came to the organization seeking support have developed into community leaders and mentors who now actively guide new participants. “We have specific cases of women who are already survivors and are helping other women,” the organization reports.

This peer leadership model creates a sustainable support network that extends far beyond the organization’s direct capacity. Survivor-mentors provide authentic guidance while demonstrating that economic independence and healing are achievable outcomes, even for women facing complex challenges around immigration status, child custody, and intimate partner violence. The transformation from seeking support to providing leadership represents one of Saman Organic’s greatest achievements—creating lasting change that ripples through survivors’ communities.

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“The goal is for [survivors] to go from being victims to survivors and realize that they can do anything they want.”

About the Program

Saman Organic stands out for implementing practical, accessible, and tailored solutions to support the economic independence and emotional well-being of Spanish-speaking migrant women from Latin America facing intimate partner violence in the Netherlands. Their approach recognizes that emotional and financial wellness are deeply interconnected.

The program begins with 21 days of structured psychosocial support focused on self-love and affirmation, followed by training in the creation of products that can be handmade from home, such as soaps, shampoos, and candles. This allows survivors to begin a powerful healing process and generate income right away, without relying on large initial investments or learning Dutch. As one volunteer explained, the goal is to offer “an immediate alternative to start working even when they have young children and many factors working against them, such as language [barriers] and [lack of] support from their partner.”

Program Development and Key Strategies

Saman Organic takes a practical and adaptable approach designed to address the unique needs of migrant women facing intimate partner violence. Through a continuous process of learning and adjustment, the organization has identified key strategies that drive its mission:

Emotional well-being as the foundation of economic action
Home-based business models and training that lower barriers to earning income
Personalized strategies developed through collaborative networks

Emotional well-being as the foundation of economic action

Saman Organic focuses first on emotional support to create an essential foundation for survivors’ recovery. Their program begins with a “21 days of healing” process to strengthen survivors’ self-esteem and resilience. During this time, the organization “accompanies [the survivor] daily with . . . empowering affirmations. . . . We focus a lot on self-love and healing.”

Using a collective, survivor-led approach, volunteers support survivors who arrive at the organization in this essential healing work, noting that they “accompany each person at their own pace.” This crucial support and healing process creates the space for survivors to begin establishing independent revenue streams that can contribute to their longer-term economic security.

Home-based business models and training that lower barriers to earning income

The creation of handmade products, such as soaps, shampoos, and candles, allows survivors to generate income from home, overcoming hurdles such as language barriers, lack of childcare, geographic isolation, and limited resources. The organization explains: “It is a project that consists of training [survivors] in a trade that they can do from home, even if they do not speak the language, and requires little investment to [enable them] to start working and generating income. [The training also] is tailored to their needs and skills.”

This approach has the added benefit of helping survivors generate income quickly—an even more important step for those who need to demonstrate financial independence when going through custody proceedings. These strategies have enabled Saman Organic to create a comprehensive model that addresses economic independence and transforms survivors’ sense of agency, providing them with tools to build a more stable and secure future.

Personalized strategies developed through collaborative networks

The organization designs solutions tailored to each participant’s needs, helping them overcome structural obstacles such as access to childcare, language classes, and legal resources. Through a network of volunteers and partner organizations, members of Saman Organic share ideas and resources to strengthen their services and strategize support for individual cases. Since survivors are often geographically dispersed across the Netherlands, the network members meet virtually to do this work.

This collaborative and flexible approach creates comprehensive accompaniment for survivors navigating complex challenges. As one volunteer explained: “We gather information about everything [the survivor] needs. . . . [We] find out where they can go, where they can find a Dutch coach to help them speak. . . . [We] help them find a job, assist them in creating a resume, and guide them on where to look for employment. . . . We provide them with all the options they may not know exist and where they can seek help. . . . We also develop strategies because when you have a strong [harm-doer], you need a strategy even to go out and look for information. You have to think and calculate everything you are going to do, every step.”

Survivor Leadership

“[The people who run the program] are survivors who have gone through healing and personal growth processes. They are resilient and have taken courses and training with other organizations or through other means.”

Survivor leadership is a cornerstone of Saman Organic’s approach. The organization believes in the transformative power of survivors to inspire and guide others facing similar situations. This model fosters both self-sufficiency and a community support network based on empathy and shared experience, demonstrating that survivors have the power to lead change in their own lives and in their communities.

Many of the survivors who have completed Saman Organic’s economic programming return to the organization as volunteers to coach and mentor others, supporting them on their journey to economic independence. Due to Saman Organic’s small size and limited resources, volunteering is both a cornerstone of their operations and a space for community relationships to thrive.

Survivors who lead within Saman Organic share their stories with participants to strengthen trust within the group, helping mitigate the loneliness and isolation often felt by survivors. This approach of building safe space fosters a sense of belonging and collaboration that is critical to the program’s success. This virtuous cycle of support and hope positively impacts all the women involved. As one volunteer noted: “If I can do it, anyone can.”

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

Intimate partner violence and economic abuse remains prevalent in the Netherlands.² The hostile political environment across Europe toward refugees and migrants further complicates the landscape for migrant women, who face additional barriers such as housing shortages and limited access to financial and social resources.³ Saman Organic’s programming is tailored to the unique context of economic, legal, and social insecurity faced by women from Latin America who move to the Netherlands to be with a Dutch partner.

The following key factors shape how survivors experience economic harm in this context:

Immigration and custody laws intersect to limit survivors’ autonomy
Cultural and language differences curtail options for survivors’ economic security

Immigration and custody laws intersect to limit survivors’ autonomy

Partner-dependent visa status leads to economic dependency and limits survivors’ options

Saman Organic explains how, unlike refugees who receive comprehensive support from the Dutch government and legal protections, survivors who enter the Netherlands on partner-dependent visas are in a uniquely precarious situation. If they separate from their Dutch partner, they may lose their legal right to remain in the country,⁴ but their Dutch-born children cannot leave the country without the father’s consent.⁵ This creates a situation where harm-doers can use survivors’ children and immigration status to maintain control.

Dutch custody laws prioritize economic stability over other factors

The legal system in the Netherlands prioritizes child welfare, and custody decisions often consider parents’ economic stability. This can put migrant survivors without independent income at a disadvantage. A member of Saman Organic explained: “The Dutch state looks closely at whether both parents generate income because, according to them, the child will be better off with the parent who provides financial support.”

This approach, while well-intentioned, can reinforce dynamics of control and pressure survivors to remain in harmful relationships to maintain access to their children. This context is at the root of Saman Organic’s strategic focus on home-based, income-generating activities, which can help create the economic independence necessary for survivors seeking child custody.

Cultural and language differences curtail options for survivors’ economic security

In addition to the legal framework, cultural differences and language barriers can significantly affect migrant survivors’ ability to build safety and economic independence upon arrival in the Netherlands. One participant explains: “The women we work with who suffer from violence, for the most part, do not handle any money. That’s because, first of all, when they arrive, they don’t speak the language, so they don’t know how the country works or how to get any documents or open a bank account without help from their partner. If their partner is [a harm-doer], the [survivor] ends up completely in their hands.”

On top of this, cultural differences in understandings around intimate partner violence and psychological abuse can make the situation worse: “In this country with a different culture . . . it is a challenge because if a woman suffers psychological abuse, it is not taken very seriously. Then women suffer from depression and are taken away from their children because they say she is not emotionally well, and this only makes the situation worse.”

These legal, cultural, and language contexts underscore the need for approaches that integrate emotional support and economic autonomy with tailored attention to the legal complexities of each survivor’s situation.

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
Nicole van Gelder, Suzanne Ligthart, Leslie Astro, and Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, “Economic Abuse Amongst Dutch Women (Formerly) Victimised by Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse: A Mixed Methods Approach,” Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies 24, no. 2 (2021): 89-107, https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGN2021.2.002.VANG.
Chris Horwood and Bram Frouws, eds., Mixed Migration Review 2024, Geneva: Mixed Migration Centre, 2024, https://mixedmigration.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Mixed-Migration-Review-2024.pdf.
Ministry of Asylum and Migration,“Staying in the Netherlands if You No Longer Live with an EU Citizen,” Immigration and Naturalisation Service, last modified July 8, 2025, https://ind.nl/en/replace-extend-renew-and-change/change/staying-in-the-netherlands-if-you-no-longer-live-with-an-eu-citizen.
SCG Advocaten, “Legal Matters Involving Children,” The Hague International Centre, December 13, 2021, https://www.thehagueinternationalcentre.nl/news/2021-12/legal-matters-involving-children.