FTS Model for Freedom

Four Letters that Spell Freedom

It takes organization to free a village from modern slavery. In Ghana, that organization has a long name with a short acronym: a Community Child Protection Committee, or CCPC. Helping villagers form these committees is a fundamental element of our community-based...

read more

Rebuilding Young Lives Scarred by Slavery

The Village of Life shelter is exactly what modern slavery survivors need. It’s a vibrant and supportive place – far from the hardships and exploitation that children experience when enslaved in remote fishing villages along Lake Volta in Ghana. My visit to this...

read more

Child Rights Begin with Children

The village school in Kobiri Nsuoano is a beacon of hope. It’s a simple building down a bumpy narrow road. But what happens inside is revolutionary. Children are learning about their rights as part of a Free the Slaves program to prevent them from being trafficked...

read more

We Won’t Botch Afryea’s Freedom

America botched the abolition of slavery in the 1860s, a mistake that has consequences for descendants of enslaved African Americans even today. Slavery was outlawed, but millions of liberated slaves weren’t allowed to build prosperous lives in freedom. This is why...

read more

Double Child Education to Fight Slavery

Summer is over and kids are back to school. But not enslaved children. For them, each day brings a lesson in hardship and mistreatment. They have no school mates, no pep rallies, no recess. Just backbreaking work and beatings. That’s why Free the Slaves invests so...

read more

From Fishing Nets to Safety Nets

Emmanuel endured years beneath the blistering sky of Ghana’s Lake Volta. As a child fishing slave, he faced the bare elements in a shoddy open boat. Sharp nets left deep cuts in his fingers. The blurry water left him fearful that he might not survive when forced to...

read more

Double the Number of Slavery Resistant Villages

When people map how modern slavery plagues their villages in the Dominican Republic, it’s a real eye opener. The simple drawing becomes a road map for freedom. Everyone in bondage is identified, and residents pledge to liberate every last woman, man and child. It...

read more

Double the Number of Slaves Living Free

A single piece of paper can change someone’s life. That’s why Free the Slaves provides vital legal support for people we liberate from bondage. This summer, you can double the number of survivors who receive official documentation to put slavery behind them and resume...

read more

Voices for Change

From an early age I felt the vocation to do everything in my power to fight injustice, and I have been working for more than 20 years to advance human rights and gender equality in different countries. Injustice is manifested in different ways with different...

read more

Savings Start With Freedom

Traffickers target people in financial trouble. When a medical crisis or other emergency strikes — like a fire, flood, drought, cyclone or earthquake — traffickers offer quick loans to desperate people who promise to “work it off.” When the borrower arrives at the job...

read more

Dignity Starts With Freedom

Traffickers steal more than a person’s labor and wages, they attack a victim’s basic humanity. They spit on the enslaved. They beat them. They’re assaulted sexually. The slaveholder’s goal: force people to give up hope.   Our message to those is slavery is simple:...

read more

Equality Starts With Freedom

Inequality is one of the major root causes of modern slavery. Traffickers thrive when women’s rights aren’t respected, when gender-based violence is ignored, when girls are denied education, and when people of different races, tribes, nationalities or social status...

read more

From Stormy Waters to a Sunny Future

When they first arrived at the rescue shelter, you could see in their eyes that these children had endured the unimaginable. “We were tied with ropes and beaten, with no food for the day,” they said. “We slept on the bare floor with no blankets.” For these three kids,...

read more

Safety Starts With Freedom

By donating to Free the Slaves, you liberate people from bondage and put traffickers in jail. Our front-line activists guide police to farms, factories and mines on raids that liberate the enslaved and arrest slaveholders. We help survivors file court cases and...

read more

Nutrition Starts With Freedom

Three square meals a day. It is fundamental for proper nutrition. But a nourishing breakfast, hearty lunch and wholesome dinner are distant dreams for people in slavery. They are typically fed just enough to stay alive to work another day. Donating to Free the Slaves...

read more

Innovation Starts With Freedom

Slavery stops innovation dead in its tracks. It keeps children out of school. It blocks entrepreneurs from access to credit. It steals a community’s wealth and labor and hope. Freedom brings creativity and positivity. This jumpstarts a village economy. People start...

read more

FTS Program “A Blessing” For Ghana Village

Last week brought high praise for our program to combat child trafficking in Ghana. It came directly from the village chief of Lolonya in the Greater Accra Region. He said our “Growing Up Free” project “has been a blessing for this community and for the children.” The...

read more

Health Starts With Freedom

Traffickers don’t care about the health of people they enslave. No doctor visits for those who fall sick. No vaccinations for children. No prenatal care for pregnant women. That’s why the work of Free the Slaves is so vital. We ensure that the people we liberate...

read more

The Journey to Freedom

Field testing is underway for our latest training initiative. A Free the Slaves team this month debuted our new handbook on the liberation, rehabilitation and reintegration of people who’ve been trapped in modern slavery. The first five-day beta test workshop was...

read more

Everything Starts With Freedom

You probably take many of life’s essentials for granted. A good education. A nourishing dinner. A clean drink of water. A visit to the doctor. A safe place to sleep. These basics are denied to people in slavery. That’s why your support to liberate the enslaved is...

read more

New School Fights Slavery in Senegal

It doesn’t look like much, just a small brick building with a dirt floor and tin roof. But it’s a major step in ending child slavery in Senegal. Residents of Medina Samba Diamanka have typically sent their children to boarding schools in the city to learn the Quran...

read more

Teen Girls Rescued by Radio in Congo

Advertising can be a powerful force – for good or bad. A recent FTS rescue in the Democratic Republic of the Congo proves the point.   Three teen girls from the village of Nobili thought they were being hired to be waitresses. Instead, they were quickly forced into...

read more

Breaking Free and Staying Free

People become enslaved for a reason. And if we don’t change those circumstances, a trafficking survivor is at extreme risk of being enslaved again. That’s why our India team provided Chhatanki with a way to support himself after liberation from a local brick kiln....

read more

From Slavery to Dressmaking Trainer in the Congo

“My story is hard to tell,” says Benita Furaha, a trainer at a dressmaking training center in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Benita’s parents died when she was 13. Her older brother threatened to starve her or to send her out of the house if she couldn’t...

read more

Why I Free Slaves – Photographer Lisa Kristine

Over a 30-year career, Lisa Kristine has documented native cultures and causes in more than 100 countries. She is an internationally acclaimed humanitarian photographer. Today she is a global voice of anti-slavery activism. Yet it wasn’t always so. Seeing Slavery at...

read more

Positioning FTS for Global Impact

Question: What do you call 26 smart, dedicated, energized, motivated and passionate human rights activists gathered together in one room? Answer: a global force for freedom! That’s the takeaway message from our 2017 all-staff retreat, which wrapped up Friday. Two...

read more

Breaking the Bonds of Slavery, Bit by Bit

Today is the World Day Against Child Labor, and we are proud to share with you a remarkable story of a girl freed from slavery in India. Pooja and her family live in Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges in northern India. Her parents were trapped in slavery at a brick...

read more

Amazing New Stories of Triumph Over Slavery

FTS is proud to present a special series profiling Ghanaian children who survived fishing slavery on Lake Volta. FTS volunteer Emily Teague traveled to Ghana to photograph them. These young victims were forced to work day and night on dangerous, deadly fishing boats....

read more

More than 1,000 People Freed From Slavery

Our 2016 annual results demonstrate that Free the Slaves liberates people from slavery and changes the conditions that allow slavery to persist. We’re not only helping people break free, we’re ensuring they stay free and nobody takes their place in bondage. Here is a...

read more

Connecting the Dots in Senegal

In many of the countries where we work, modern slavery is hidden from public view. But not in Senegal. Child slavery here is evident everywhere. Little boys carrying empty plastic margarine containers cluster on street corners and markets all over Dakar, Saint-Louis...

read more