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Thursday May 16, 2019

Persisting (and Resisting) to Raise Awareness of Prison Slavery

Katina French

As social media manager at Freedom United, most of my work takes place online. It’s rare that I get to meet supporters and partners in real life and to hear why they chose to work against modern slavery. This week, I helped coordinate a Red Sand Project event in Nashville. We also received promotional support from Women’s March Tennessee. The event was highlighting our campaign calling on private prison company CoreCivic to address allegations of forced labor in their facilities. CoreCivic – one of the country’s largest private prison companies – issued a last-minute

Domestic Slavery

Friday May 3, 2019

Fired for Having Cancer: Our Exclusive Interview with Baby Jane Allas and Jessica Cutrera

Imagine being fired for having cancer. It’s shocking, but it’s exactly what happened to Baby Jane Allas. The single mother came to Hong Kong to be a domestic worker in 2017, hoping to support her five children and mother back in the Philippines. Yet her employer acted like Baby Jane was her property, treating her like a servant she owned. Baby Jane was made to sleep in a cabinet under the stairs and was not given a weekly day off a required by Hong Kong law. On top of this, her employed rationed

Activists

Tuesday December 11, 2018

Crossing Paths and Calling for Change with Nadia Murad

This week the world has seen the amazing strength and courage of Nadia Murad as she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018. She works tirelessly to rouse the world to take action on behalf of thousands of Yazidi women and girls still being bought and sold every day. It has been my honor to have had my own journey as a modern abolitionist cross paths with someone as remarkable and inspiring as Nadia Murad. In 2016, our team at Freedom United began taking over the advocacy work begun by the Walk Free Foundation. I was proud to be partnering with organizations who truly

Activists

Friday May 3, 2019

The scars of persecution: My personal journey

Fiori Giovanni was born in Eritrea and escaped an arranged childhood marriage at just 12 years old. At 15, she fled the Eritrean army and made a harrowing journey across Libya and the Mediterranean sea, alone. This is her story: Modern slavery is a 21st-century evil that is a daily reality for millions of people around the world. For those currently enslaved, it’s a life full of terror, pain, suffering and hopelessness. And those who escape, face a long internal struggle to heal from the grief and trauma that is always present in our lives. I say ‘our’ lives because I know this

Child Slavery

Friday November 2, 2018

Pioneering a Path to Slavery-Free Chocolate

Tate Johnston

Much of the work in the anti-slavery movement has been directed at convincing businesses fixated on profits to investigate (and address) abuses hidden in their supply chains. But some businesses are starting off on a much better foot, with a more pro-active approach to do social good. In fact, some are building their entire business model to prove that it can be done without exploitation and abuse. Social entrepreneurship is a growing trend. These start-ups combine a big heart with a head for business, using the engine of commerce to drive positive change. One company, Tony’s