Mission: Free the slaves' mission is to end slavery and human trafficking around the world.
Programs: India: grassroots anti-slavery: fts and its partners organize communities to resist bonded labor and sex trafficking of adults and children. We support collective action by slaves and former slaves to demand freedom, payment of wages and protection from violence; and to develop new livelihoods and enterprises. We also support lawyers who press for justice for victims, and we support operation of a shelter and group home for survivors of sex slavery. 2013 accomplishments: 2,806 people liberated from slavery; 4,731 people educated on community resistance to slavery; 905 government officials trained on appropriate responses to slavery; 97 legal cases initiated against slaveholders/traffickers.
democratic republic of the congo: grassroots anti-slavery: fts' congo program addresses many forms of slavery surrounding mines in the kivu provinces. Fts partners operate a resource center to educate miners and others about their rights, conduct public awareness campaigns, organize leaders to educate their communities, and engage local officials to press for enforcement of congolese anti-slavery laws. 2013 accomplishments: 56 people liberated from slavery; 1,806 people educated on community resistance to slavery; 91 government officials trained on appropriate responses to slavery; 2 major investigative research reports on mining slavery and forced marriage slavery produced and distributed in the u. S. And congo.
haiti: grassroots anti-slavery: fts' haiti program is focused on eradicating the "restavek" system of child domestic slavery. Fts and our partner have organized six model communities in a pilot project that demonstrates reduction of slavery prevalence is possible when parents are organized to learn about the trauma of slavery, to educate their neighbors about slavery, to take action to rescue their children and to work together to develop new livelihoods. Fts' partner also provides accelerated education for formerly enslaved children and children at risk of enslavement. 2013 accomplishments: seven children liberated from slavery; 648 people educated on community resistance to slavery; 272 at-risk children received accelerated education.
Our foundation has completed two projects with Free the Slaves (Nepal and Ghana), and we spent a week reviewing their work in Nepal. Their particular strength is to find local groups that are finding effective ways to fight slavery and empower those groups. Extremely efficient method. They work on all facets of the problem -- community education / prevention, liberation, rehabilitation, public policy, reintegration, ... We remain enthusiastic donors from our personal funds.
I am a VA HS Senior. I completed a senior project of which Free the Slaves was the beneficiary. For my project, I hosted For“Bid”: An Auction to Stop Human Trafficking. This project not only allowed me to collect donations, but I got to directly inform over 200 people of human trafficking. In the process of completing my project, I was in contact with Mr. Lee McClure of Free the Slaves. Without his guidance and assistance, I would not have been able to complete my project. And without the work of Kevin Bales, co-founder of Free the Slaves, I would not have been able to pass my senior thesis.
I found out about this organisation by listening to a TED talk given by its founder. He is a university professor who researched the subject of slavery in the 21st century. He discovered that ALL countries in our world have slaves (yes S-L-A-V-E-S, defined as people forced to work by threat of violence and who earn barley enough to survive) and that it can cost very little to free a slave (it costs more in some countries)! His goal is a world without any slaves.
This organization work is based on these simple rules: freeing a slave means finding him a different occupation in life & never reward the slave owner by buying the slave from him. The latter means that the workers and volunteers risk their lives to free slaves.
They have a very detailed website so check it out, I am proud to be one of their donors.
