Trans Emigrate has been a success over its 20-month lifespan. We have gotten 15-20 people out, and we have learned the basic mechanics of obtaining visas, arranging asylum, handling passengers, and organizing globally.

But it’s been obvious for a while that our origin as a scrappy activist group isn’t consistent with the scope of the work we are doing. Our volunteer staff sometimes has our lives in the hands of other volunteers. Our passengers almost always do.

As any organization grows, it will inevitably evolve and re-invent itself to more closely reflect its continuing mission. As an example, the original impetus for TransEmigrate came through a concern for trans people in the US, UK, and Europe, but in practice our work has taken us to the Middle East and Africa.

So we need to formalize our organization.. When we lay out a path for one of our passengers we must do so with integrity and with the demonstrable ability to follow it up. Our objective is to move trans* people out of dangerous situations, and we must seize upon anything which could improve our efficiency in that endeavor.

We’ve thus decided to reorganize TransEmigrate as a new organization, Trans Rescue. Formally, we’re Stichting Trans Rescue Foundation. We’re a formal Foundation in the Netherlands, the equivalent of a 501c3 in the US. Besides the legal status, we intend to operate like a ‘real’ NGO.

Changing the name lets us reinvent how we do things. Without the name change, we might be tempted to do things as they’ve always been done.

Changing to a formal NGO structure also lets us work with governmental and international organizations, an increasingly important part of our work.

TransEmigrate has been a successful prototype. We’re now ready for the industrial scale version – Trans Rescue.

We want to thank many people. We remain a secret organization, and so we’ll thank our volunteers privately.

Thank all of you who supported TransEmigrate’s work during it’s life. Please support us during this time of transition.

Yours for a brighter future for trans people,

Anne Ogborn

Voorzitter, Trans Rescue