One of the most important things to remember about slavery is that it never really ended. It has been outlawed worldwide, but never eradicated. There are tens of millions of people trapped in modern forms of slavery around the globe today.
That’s why Free the Slaves has created a new two-part film series for January, which President Obama has proclaimed to be Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The “Slavery is Alive” films let you hear about the brutality of slavery today – directly from people who know slavery best, those who have endured it.
We are releasing Part One of the series today. It features haunting testimony from slavery survivors in Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Nepal, India, Congo, Georgia and Pakistan.
This film is just three minutes long, but I’m sure it will prompt you to want to take action. Here are ideas how you can help to mobilize your friends, family, neighbors, classmates, clients, congregants, co-workers and everyone you know.
- HOST A HOUSE PARTY: Raise funds to liberate slaves. Play a Free the Slaves video at the event to get the discussion started. Check our House Party Guide for tips.
- GET SOCIAL: Visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, then like us and share our posts. Stay in touch with news from the front lines on the FTS blog.
- BUILD COMMUNITY: Organize a brownbag lunch talk at work, or print and distribute our Slavery and Trafficking Fact Sheet on campus, or pick a Free the Slaves book for your book group. Student resources are on our Students Ending Slavery webpage. Create your own online campaign with our Razoo tools.
- ENGAGE THE FAITHFUL: Hold a candlelight vigil, or take-up a special offering during January services, or adopt Free the Slaves as a designated charity for your congregation. For resources and handouts, visit our Faith in Action webpage.
- BUY GIFTS THAT SPREAD FREEDOM: Our online store features T-shirts, watches, wallets, jewelry, messenger bags and fine-art books – a portion of each sale directly benefits our anti-slavery programs around the world.
- DONATE TODAY: Your ongoing contributions to Free the Slaves fuel our grassroots anti-trafficking programs and global advocacy work. And our programs deliver concrete results – we’ve freed more than 12,000 people and educated more than 400,000 to prevent their enslavement. More than 200 traffickers have been brought to justice.
I hope you’ll join us this month to take a stand against modern slavery.
