At IDA+S, we celebrate women who dedicate their lives to making a difference. For this edition of our International Women’s Day series, we honour Rachel Dunwell—a nurse, mother, and relentless advocate for children trapped in slavery and exploitation around the world.

Rachel’s journey into advocacy is deeply personal. As a child, she experienced the loss of her own freedom when her parents brought her into a strict religious cult. “I saw freedom slowly and methodically taken from me,” she shares. “I had to relearn what it was to be a strong female. A woman who could make her own decisions.”

That experience shaped her lifelong mission. “I am so passionate about IWD,” Rachel says. “I am an advocate for the over 1 million children who are currently caught in child slavery and exploitation across the world. This is not just a moment in my life. This is a lifelong passion of mine. To champion freedom.”

That experience shaped her mission. Now, as a key figure at Destiny Rescue, an organisation dedicated to rescuing children from human trafficking and exploitation, Rachel is committed to breaking cycles of abuse and oppression. Her work is not just about saving lives—it’s about restoring dignity, opportunity, and the right to a future.

Rachel believes that empowering women is essential in the fight against injustice. “We now need a generation of strong female leaders who are going to get past all the troubles, all the things that come at us as females,” she says. “Those storms, those great winds that come at us in life—we can lift our sails into. They are going to take us into the potential that we all carry within us.”

Her unwavering dedication reminds us that true strength lies in using our experiences, no matter how painful, to uplift and protect others. This International Women’s Day, we celebrate Rachel Dunwell—a woman who turned her own fight for freedom into a mission to free others.