Blog
Building frontline knowledge to combat modern slavery in Nigeria’s cocoa communities
The people most likely to notice when exploitation is happening in a cocoa community are often the ones no one thinks to train. They are the staff who visit farms, hold conversations with households, and observe working conditions firsthand. They are close to the...
Rebuilding on Her Own Terms: How Survivor Leadership Is Changing the Response to Sex Trafficking in Senegal
Lasting change in anti-trafficking work requires protection systems and the people those systems serve to work in genuine partnership. At 28, Glory reflects what that looks like. After surviving sex trafficking across five countries on a false promise of education abroad, she has rebuilt her life in Kédougou, Senegal, and now volunteers at the shelter where she once found safety, offering peer support to other survivors and building a future on her own terms.
Guatemala Shows Child Labor a Red Card. The Numbers Demand We Don’t Stop There.
Guatemala marked World Day Against Child Labor with an Informational Fair that drew more than 400 participants, including Vice President Karin Herrera and senior Ministry of Labor officials rallying around the ILO’s 2026 theme: “Show Child Labor a Red Card.” Free the Slaves was there alongside survivors whose advocacy is pushing Guatemala’s national Roadmap toward meaningful improvements.
Survivor Participation in Anti-Trafficking Policy: Evidence from Latin America
Survivor participation in anti-trafficking work has become a widely accepted principle. What remains harder to achieve is making that participation genuinely meaningful. Drawing on field evidence from Guatemala and Bolivia, Free the Slaves joined the UNODC and the Organization of American States in Vienna to share what the work actually requires.
From Planning to Action: Grassroots Leaders Advancing Anti-Trafficking and Safe Migration Efforts
When community members are equipped to lead, lasting protection becomes possible. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, 22 grassroots leaders from Migrant Vigilance Committees and Azad Shakti Abhiyan groups recently completed Community Action Plan workshops, translating a year of training into structured, village-level strategies to prevent exploitation, promote safe migration, and connect vulnerable families to support. Here is what that looks like in practice.
From Research to Action: Advancing Change for Child Domestic Workers in Kathmandu (Part II)
In Kathmandu, tens of thousands of children work as domestic workers, often arriving with promises of education and better opportunities. A new report by Free the Slaves and CWISH Nepal reveals the realities of this largely invisible form of child labor, and the coordinated action needed to address it. Read how FTS and CWISH are turning research into prevention by bringing these findings directly into classrooms and communities in Nepal.
Advancing Kenya’s Response to Human Trafficking and Human Rights Protection
As human trafficking evolves, national responses must adapt to new risks, from technology-facilitated exploitation to complex migration pathways. In Kenya, recent policy and human rights engagements brought together government, civil society, and survivor voices to strengthen legal frameworks, improve protection systems, and ensure that commitments translate into real accountability and support for those most at risk.
Survivors of Child Labor Shape National Policy Discussions in Guatemala
In May 2026, survivors of child labor in Guatemala stood before government officials and spoke. With support from Free the Slaves, survivor representatives brought eight concrete recommendations to Guatemala’s national child labor commission, demonstrating what inclusive policymaking looks like when the people most affected are treated as essential voices.
Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder Countries in Asia-Pacific – Progress, Persistent Gaps, and What It Will Take to Accelerate Change
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Fiji, and Samoa have all committed to ending child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking through the Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder initiative. A new Free the Slaves analysis of all five finds a consistent pattern: strong policy frameworks, persistent ground-level gaps. The barriers are structural: fragmented data systems, an informal economy beyond inspectors’ reach, dependence on international funding, and limited survivor voice in program design. The next phase of progress won’t come from more roadmaps.