Terrific news from The Foundation for I AM (FFIA), formed by film director Tom Shadyac to distribute proceeds from his I AM documentary to support nonprofit organizations.
FFIA has dedicated three years of financial support to Free the Slaves, with the goal of bringing freedom to a village of stonebreakers in northern India. For decades, thousands have been enslaved in quarries at hundreds of villages throughout this region, near the city of Allahabad. Controlled by fear, debt and poverty, villagers are forced to break stones in appalling conditions without access to health care, education or basic wages.
“Slavery not only exists throughout the world today; it flourishes,” according to Policy Innovations, a publication of the Carnegie Council. “Slavery is legal nowhere, yet it is practiced everywhere. With an estimated 27 million people in bondage worldwide, more than twice as many people are enslaved throughout the world today as were taken in chains during the entire 350 years of the African Slave Trade.”
As you know, Free the Slaves empowers slaves to break free and transform the political, social and economic forces that allow slavery to persist. By building global awareness and documenting successful techniques to end modern slavery, Free the Slaves serves as a global catalyst. FTS not only helps slaves to freedom, but prods governments to enforce anti-slavery laws and persuades corporations to clean slave-tainted materials out of product supply chains.
The Foundation for I AM will be supporting Free the Slaves in our ongoing efforts to end slavery. It may seem an ambitious goal, but it is a realizable goal nonetheless. It starts with recognition and awareness that the reason slavery still flourishes throughout the world today is because the mentality that created slavery still exists. Recognition and awareness of the problem is the beginning of the end of slavery.
Details about FFIA: FFIA (EIN# 27-3598794) was founded in 2010 to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of those impoverished in our society. We will use our resources to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and comfort the sick; we will also serve those in spiritual need, those suffering from a different kind of poverty, a poverty of perspective and purpose, through educational programs that will foster a dialogue around the ideals of love, compassion, kindness and empathy. In addition, we will financially support existing nonprofits whose work is kindred with the foundation’s principles. Ultimately, the goal of The Foundation for I AM is to help usher in a more loving, kind, compassionate, and equitable world for all.
