Blog
2021 Regional Forums Initiative Concludes
It’s been a busy past three months! The Freedom from Slavery Forum held three regional events focusing on Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and the combined regions of North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. This concluded the series of 2021 regional...
Omicron Variant Postpones Annual Freedom from Slavery Forum
Due to the sharp rise in cases and uncertainty associated with the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, Free the Slaves is announcing the postponement of the global Freedom from Slavery Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco. The Forum, scheduled for December 5-8, would have...
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...
Get Involved
FTS Solidarity Statement on Racial Violence and Justice in the United States
On behalf of Free the Slaves, we stand in solidarity with the growing global outcry against racial violence and for racial justice in the United States. Free the Slaves is appalled by the ongoing systemic injustices directed at Black people and other people of color...
Freedom Forward
It is a great honor for me to become the next chair of the board of directors for Free the Slaves, one of the founding and leading organizations of the global movement against modern slavery. I am grateful to my dear friend and predecessor, Dan Elkes, whose uncommon...
Steps on the Journey to a World Free from Modern-Day Slavery
There was a time when people were unaware that slavery continues on in the world, that the buying and selling of people had stopped with the United States Civil War and legislation by countries around the world. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Free the Slaves...
Our Work
Double Your Impact with our Doubling Down on Freedom Campaign
As chair of the Free the Slaves board of directors, I want to personally let you know that a generous foundation this summer is increasing its support of our work. They’ll match dollar-for-dollar your summertime contributions, up to $100,000. It’s a unique opportunity...
Dedicated to Peace, Freedom, Human Dignity
My journey to becoming a human rights activist began while I was a high school. During holiday breaks, my classmates and I organized "Framing Camps" to benefit children in our neighborhood. Later, I had an opportunity to attend a child rights workshop and research...
FTS Senegal Program Gains Widespread Attention & Media Coverage
Last week’s Free the Slaves seminar in Senegal on child begging slavery was a remarkable success. Representatives from the Senegal government, international organizations and local civil society groups gathered to learn how our Aar Sunu Xaleyi (Protect Our Children)...
News
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...
Trump is Slashing Trafficking Programs, Your Help is Needed Now
President Trump in February promised America would “do more” to fight human trafficking. Last month, presidential adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump pledged to make this fight a “major priority.” But last week, the Trump administration released a 2018 budget that...
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...
Americas
BBC Chronicles World’s Best Slavery SWAT Squad on Christmas Night
They’re committed. They’re armed. And they’re successful. Very successful. Like 46,000 slaves freed since 1995 successful. They’re the labor department’s mobile inspection units in Brazil. They swoop down on farms, ranches, mines, quarries, logging camps and factories...
Congress Briefed on a Crime Against Children: Restavek Slavery in Haiti
Religious and political figures gathered on Capitol Hill last week to raise awareness about one of the world's most challenging child slavery problems: restavek slavery in Haiti. The Church World Service and The Episcopal Church, in cooperation with Congressman Chris...
New Video Highlights the Passion for Freedom Among Our Front Line Staff
I’d like to introduce you to five of the most passionate people I know. They are the Free the Slaves country directors – our key front line activists. They supervise our organization’s fieldwork in the world’s worst slavery hotspots. Why do these courageous staffers...
Asia
Where Your Donations to our Fashion for Freedom Campaign Are Going
Our Fashion for Freedom Campaign is designed to benefit women, men, and children working to rebuild their lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and India. Recovering from slavery requires multidimensional healing - psychological, physical, social and...
How Fashion is Changing Lives for Slavery Survivors
Throughout July, our Fashion for Freedom Campaign has been in motion leading up to the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons at the end of the month. Our campaign supports vocational training programs, providing safe spaces for trafficking survivors...
2017 Trafficking Report Released Amid Radical Budget Cutbacks
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report illustrates “the commitment of our country that we have this joint effort underway across the entire United States government” to combat modern slavery. “Human trafficking is as old as...
Africa
Three Boys Lose Eight Years to Fishing Slavery
The work wasn’t bad. It was so much worse. Fourteen-hour shifts. One meal a day. No education, no reprieve, no escape. Godwin, Ebenezer and Bright Anyimornu endured these conditions for eight years when their mother couldn’t afford to take care of them and her husband...
Canadian Graduate Students Develop New Way to Measure Slavery Resistance
Editor's Note: This dispatch from the field originally appeared on the University of British Columbia's Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA) program website in December. Free the Slaves thanks the university team's remarkable effort to help us improve...
Sold into Slavery for $11 and a Cow
Owning livestock can transform a family’s future in rural Ghana. An impoverished farmer can sell the cow’s milk, and use its dung for fertilizer and biofuel. Of course, it’s never right to sell your son to get a cow. But that’s what Felix Kaletsi’s father did. A...