Hibiscus Initiatives was founded by Olga Heaven MBE, a woman who began her work as a volunteer in Holloway Prison, where she observed a high number of black, minoritised women. Olga discovered that many of these women were victims of exploitation or drug smuggling and that there was inadequate support they could access in prison.
Olga developed networks across Nigeria and Jamaica with the purpose of prevention: to spread awareness of the severity of the dangers experienced by women exploited in the drug trade. This had a huge impact in reducing the number of women being exploited to transport drugs to the UK.
Today. Hibiscus has expanded to support women across the Criminal Justice System, within the community, in courts, on probation and in prison. We also support women (and men) in Immigration Removal Centres across the UK.