We receive dispatches throughout the year from our front-line partner groups around the globe. This report, from June, is one of the year’s most uplifting success stories. Nearly a dozen boys were freed, the trajectory of their lives put back on track. Shattered Hope...
By William Greenbaum and Maurice Middleberg Sylvester and Emmanuel were side-by-side as members of the Community Child Protection Committee (CCPC), sitting on plastic chairs and gathered under a tarp to ward off the sun. The CCPC had assembled to talk about efforts to...
Overcoming fear is essential to freedom, and in eastern Congo there is plenty to be frightened about. Millions have died in conflict over the region’s vast mineral wealth. Control of mines and the slaves who work them has turned the region into one of the world’s most...
Sangita is just 15, but she’s seen a lot. Her parents needed to borrow money from a local brick factory owner, who forced Sangita’s entire family into slavery at the kiln to pay off the debt. Now she is free, and her story underscores how the FTS Community Model for...
The film’s name is short and straightforward: Hatuko Watumwa, Swahili for We Are Not Slaves. It’s a half-hour fictionalization of how vulnerable villagers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo fall into slavery at mines – at what they can do to escape. FTS and our...
They typically work in nondescript cubicles in corporate office parks — and they usually aren’t aware that their desks can become the newest front line in the growing global battle against modern slavery. They are the supply chain officers for American companies. And...
Ghana is partnering with the U.S. government and civil society organizations to eradicate child trafficking here, a country where modern-day slavery is rampant. Political officials, NGOs and community leaders gathered in Accra last week for the first-ever anti-human...
Nominations are now open for the 2016 Free the Slaves Freedom Awards. Free the Slaves will award a U.S. $10,000 prize to an organization registered India or Nepal that is implementing an innovative “scalable” approach to ending bonded labor in India or Nepal. A...
Like many children who fall into slavery, Mukhal’s story begins with tragedy. His father died three years ago, when he was 9, leaving his family in a precarious financial situation.Human traffickers are always on the lookout for this kind of vulnerability. One reached...
Indian weddings are legendary – they are large, loud, colorful, and can last for days. Because it is such a big cultural occasion, families plan the biggest event possible. That expense is how marriage ceremonies can lead to slavery. Helping newlyweds and their...
Today we are thrilled to release a poignant new film that features the work of Free the Slaves around the world. Two extraordinary volunteers journeyed to the front lines of slavery to meet survivors and activists. Their film uncovers the brutality of hidden slavery...
Inspiring news to report today: Free the Slaves has liberated 12,000 people from slavery! That's worth saying twice. Free the Slaves has liberated 12,000 people from slavery! People who had been forced to do backbreaking work for no pay, by ruthless criminals who use...
One of the major challenges in the fight against modern slavery is proving that a particular strategy successfully and sustainably liberates people from bondage, and that there's an improvement in socioeconomic conditions in places where slavery has been overcome. A...
Free the Slaves has discovered an incredible way to break the back of slavery in the world’s worst trafficking hot spot.We do it by partnering with local organizations in India to strengthen and liberate entire villages. It’s amazing. Everyone breaks free....
One of the toughest challenges in fighting modern slavery is holding traffickers accountable for their crimes. But after a three-year struggle, lawyers with the Free the Slaves front-line partner group Tatvasi Samaj Nyas (TSN) have ensured that four traffickers will...
Police officers in Nepal sometimes respond with indifference to human trafficking cases, impeding slavery survivors’ access to justice.That is beginning to change, thanks to the Free the Slaves front-line partner organization GMSP. It is working with local and...
When asked what he does for a living, Maurice Middleberg answers with a smile: “I free slaves.” Last week, he told students just how he does it, as a guest lecturer at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies’ Human Trafficking Center....
Thousands of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers are posted around the globe each year to promote world peace and friendship through projects that tackle international development challenges such as climate change, pandemic disease, food security and gender equality. They...
2016 Trafficking Awareness Day Spotlight More than half of the people trapped in modern slavery are women and girls. They’re exploited in bars and brothels, in homes as maids and nannies, on farms and fishing boats, and in mines and factories worldwide.Supriya Awasthi...
Seventeen religious leaders from different faiths agreed they’ll take action with their congregations to confront modern slavery, following an in-depth workshop with Free the Slaves and our Congolese partner organizations in Goma earlier this month.The training...
Free the Slaves is wrapping up our 15th year of fighting for freedom. It's a good time to not only reflect on our most important accomplishment, freeing 10,000 people from slavery. It's also important to distill the lessons we've learned from years of working with...
It takes more than passion and indignation to eradicate the evil of slavery. It takes science. That’s why Free the Slaves has developed our Community Based Model for Fighting Slavery. It’s a four-step formula that guides our work to bring entire communities from...
This year marks 15 Years of Fighting for Freedom at Free the Slaves. In that spirit, I’d like to share 15 reasons that you should donate to our organization in this special anniversary year.We free slaves. We have liberated more than 10,000 people so far. With your...
This year marks our 15th birthday and two important milestones. In 15 years, we have helped free more than 10,000 people from slavery, and we’ve educated more than 100,000 vulnerable villagers to help prevent their enslavement. You made that possible. Your...
April's devastating earthquake has created an unfortunate business opportunity for predatory human traffickers. Many Nepalis are still living like refugees. With infrastructure in tatters, families are struggling to get by and parents are distraught over living...
When you see what unlicensed gold mines look like in Ghana, you’ll be shocked to learn that children must endure these inhuman working conditions.“It’s not very easy,” says Isaac, who worked in the mines at age 13. “Sometimes you have to carry the stones on your head...
We’ve all heard the slogan about protecting the earth’s environment: “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Free the Slaves is applying that type of logic to our worldwide effort to protect the earth’s most vulnerable people from slavery.As a global organization, Free the...
Their living and working conditions were dangerous and dreadful. Elias Vieira da Silva and Nerisvan da Silva Elias survived in a dilapidated shack, sleeping on hammocks and pelted by rain. They had no clean drinking water. There was no bathroom. They endured frequent...
Ghana’s gold mines are a source of prosperity and pain. Gold is a huge part of the country’s economy. But for children, mining can bring misery and death.“The conditions in the unlicensed gold mining sites are deplorable, especially for children,” says Free the Slaves...
Economic freedom is vital for trafficking survivors. If a person liberated from slavery cannot earn a living, they are vulnerable to becoming enslaved again. That’s why Free the Slaves and our front-line partner organizations help provide skills training and...
One of the key elements of our front-line strategy is the protection of children. By helping adults recognize and respect that children have rights, we help communities safeguard their youngest from slavery and other abuses. Two recent success stories show how our...
Before they were rescued from slavery, residents of Sakdouri lived in terror.“Someone promised us jobs at a brick kiln,” says Durga. But they were never paid. “When we asked the owner, he beat us” Durga says.“The brick kiln owner and his supervisor threatened to throw...
Today marks the 13th annual World Day Against Child Labor, and this year’s theme is education. That’s because educating children is one of the most effective ways to prevent them from becoming exploited in hard labor or slavery.Schooling prepares children for...
Free the Slaves south Asia Director Supriya Awasthi sees herself as a connector. She builds bridges between slavery survivors and those still in bondage.“I always wanted to do something like this, because I could see something changing in front of me,” she says. Once...
We headed to Burkina Faso earlier this year for a training program that traditionally does not fall under the Free the Slaves model for intervention. Our mandate was to train 29 community facilitators on issues of child labor and slavery, social protection and data...
Staying free is just as important as breaking free. It’s vital that slavery survivors plan what they will do to earn a living once they are rescued.In the India village of Kukdaha, rescued slaves decided that they would do in freedom exactly what they did in slavery:...
Free the Slaves is happy to introduce a remarkable new staffer who has recently joined us as the director of monitoring, learning and evaluation. Karen Snyder, Ph.D. has more than 20 years of experience in program planning, implementation and evaluation. She earned...
Imagine this scene in remote town in the Congo. A van pulls up and workers jump out to erect a giant screen. At sunset, a movie starts to play in the village square. In a community without electricity, people gather to watch the spectacle, transfixed by a story on the...
The first part of our mission statement is crystal clear: liberate slaves. And with your continuing support, Free the Slaves is achieving that goal. Together, we have just crossed a historic milestone: freeing more than 10,000 people from slavery worldwide since Free...
Freeing slaves is about community. It’s about strengthening community resistance in slavery hot spots so that traffickers cannot prey on vulnerable children, women and men. And it’s about building a community of supporters among those of us who live with the blessing...
As the Thanksgiving holiday draws near, I would like to share a very special video message from the Free the Slaves staffers across the globe whose work you support. They risk their safety every day to help vulnerable and exploited communities break free from the...
Free the Slaves programs are doing more than helping people break free and stay free. They’re demonstrating that our community education and empowerment approach is a successful strategy to help vulnerable people resist and overcome the injustice and indignity of...
It is a familiar situation in West Africa. A child is sent to live with a relative and made to take care of all household chores, leaving them no time or energy attend school. It happened to Seth Boateng two years ago. His father left the 16-year-old with an aunt,...
The battle lines in the fight to conquer human trafficking span the globe, because modern-day slavery exists in every nation on earth. San Francisco Bay Area residents have an opportunity this Sunday to hear from distinguished front-line leaders who’ve been remarkably...
It started with a simple loan to pay for a wedding. It turned into brutal enslavement for an entire family. It wound up as a triumphant victory over bondage, thanks to Free the Slaves and our front line partner group in India, MSEMVS. Five years ago, Jaswant borrowed...
It’s heartbreaking to learn that rural Haitian families often feel they have no choice but to send some of their children away because they can’t afford to care for them. The restavek system is a longstanding tradition in Haiti, where rural kids are sent to live with...
Have you ever wondered just how Free the Slaves helps thousands of people escape bondage each year? Well, now you can read the step-by-step procedures we follow for leading communities from slavery to freedom. Our “Community Based Model for Fighting Slavery” is...
“Forging freedom demands the courage to renew and transform.”That’s how the Free the Slaves 2013 Annual Report begins. The report demonstrates that Free the Slaves is thriving as an organization, while embracing the need for change.The report showcases remarkable...
We've just completed our 2013 year-end review, and the results are both impressive and inspiring. In partnership with local organizations around the globe, we helped free more people from slavery last year than ever before. Here are the numbers from our frontline work...