Friends of Esthers is committed, among other things, to helping a number of survivors get out of cult and stay out of cult. All other activities that we develop or attend, we try to test whether this is in the interest of these survivors or potentially harms their interests. In this, pros and cons have to be carefully weighed against each other.

This also means that we are very reluctant to participate or attend activities of other organisations engaged in helping survivors. The reason for this is that in our experience and belief, organisations engaged in helping and supporting survivors of srm (including Friends of Esthers) are exposed to continuous attempts by cult to infiltrate or disbelieve their activities in the eyes of survivors. For example, by allowing perpetrators from cult to apply as employees or volunteers, by setting up their own aid organisations, or by having companies that some survivors associate with abuse openly sponsor an aid organisation or initiative around srm. If Friends of Esthers links itself to such organisations or initiatives, this can create great distrust among (parts of the person) of our survivors. For example, if someone from Friends of Esthers attends an activity of another organisation, it may happen that cult takes pictures of someone from Friends of Esthers in conversation with another attendee, who to one of our survivors is an offender. This damages the bond of trust that this survivor is trying to build with people from Friends of Esthers, and thus has a negative effect on his or her recovery. We want to avoid this - where possible - so as not to make getting out of cult even more difficult than it already is.

For the above reasons, we are very reluctant to attend activities of other organisations involved in helping survivors and to publish or refer to their publications. This also applies, for example, to participation in (Christian) conferences. This is therefore by no means an a priori negative judgement on this activity or organisation. We strive to make the best possible policy choices in this, to the best of our ability, out of concern for our survivors. At the same time, we warmly support any initiative that supports survivors and/or contributes to publicising the injustice of srm and our heartfelt wish is that these initiatives may bear much fruit.