Former “slaves” build Brazil World Cup stadium (Reuters)

This is a beautiful story about a Brazilian anti-slavery program which places formerly enslaved laborers into legitimate jobs—while providing education so they can have marketable skills. One of the stadiums to be used for the world cup in 2014 is being built by 25 workers in this program:

More than 2,600 people were “rescued” from slave labor in 2010, the labor ministry says. Brazil’s government has made the problem a top priority over the past decade, and expanded the definition of slavery in 2003 to include both forced labor and degrading working conditions – a broader definition than many countries, says the International Labor Organization.

Government programs such as the one that placed the workers at the Cuiaba stadium, which included six months of on-site training, are critical to ensuring that slavery ultimately disappears for good in Brazil, says Valdiney Arruda, the superintendent at the labor ministry in Mato Grosso state.

“The biggest challenge is often to prove to these people that they are capable” of working dignified jobs, Arruda said. “How do you leave behind a whole lifetime in just six months? … It’s not easy, but they’re doing it.”

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Find out more about the work of Free the Slaves’ frontline partner in Brazil. 

An Exhibition on Modern Slavery Opens at Lincoln’s Cottage in DC

On February 17 (last Friday), Lincoln’s Cottage opened an exhibition on modern-day slavery. The show, titled Can You Walk Away? is produced in partnership with Polaris Project, and features filmed interviews with slavery survivors, and offers educational resources. The Lincoln Cottage shop is also now selling Fair Trade products. The show was conceived as a way to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally ended slavery in the U.S.The exhibition is on view until August 2013.

Free the Slaves works with Polaris Project through the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking—a group made up of U.S.-based anti-slavery nonprofits. We also collaborate with Polaris Project through mtvU’s “Against Our Will” campaign, which raises awareness about modern-slavery.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. And if you still haven’t gotten a present for your beloved this year, we’ve got a last minute gift you can give:

Send a Valentine’s Day ecard, and help end slavery!

This year, get your Valentine something original, something that lasts, something that changes the world.

Give FREEDOM.

Click on this link to make a $10 donation to Free the Slaves and send an eValentine to the love in your life.

Because of a tiny herd of cows, a cow shed and a bio-gas system donated to Punarnawa, the ashram has enough dairy products to feed 26-30 residents daily, enough methane (from the bio-gas system’s processing of cow manure) to cook meals, and compost for their gardens. There is also enough extra milk to sell at the market to generate income to pay for the cows’ vet bills and extra feed. In the mornings, the milkman rides his bike to the center, picks up the extra milk and rides off to sell it at the market. Even a worker from the nearby village who helps with the cows, paid in milk, benefits from the project.

How does a bio-gas system work? Cow dung, mixed with water and cow urine, decomposes in an underground digester. Methane rises to the top of the digester and travels through a valved pipe to the kitchen and to a stove. The leftover decomposed mixture—minus methane—leaves the digester and flows into a shallow pit where it can be gathered for use as compost.

Our co-founder and communications director, Peggy Callahan, has been thinking for some time about stepping down from her full-time staff position so that she could pursue special projects that would benefit the anti-slavery movement and Free the Slaves. Peggy says the time is right to make this transition.

We are forever grateful for Peggy’s unparalleled contributions to the abolition movement. She helped inspire the global media to alert the world that slavery still exists, and created a video library that helps journalists create awareness about slavery worldwide. Through her talents as a gifted filmmaker and her reputation as a trusted journalist, Peggy framed the struggle against slavery in positive, optimistic terms. By humanizing the problem, she helped everyone know that they have a role to play. Her films are a timeless legacy; they reveal one of history’s great crimes and the rebirth of a movement to end it.

Peggy was an award-winning television producer who left TV to go end slavery. (She often jokes that the move says a lot about TV.) She came up with our name and logo, and invented the Freedom Awards. She attracted thousands of people to donate, and hundreds to join the Free the Slaves family as volunteers. (And I’m told that she has forced many of those volunteers into her closet at home during holiday parties to record translation voiceovers for sound bites in her Free the Slaves films!)

A long-time colleague of Peggy, who has worked for three years on the Free the Slaves communications team as the unit’s senior writer-producer and communications specialist, will take over as communications director. Terry FitzPatrick is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist with 30 years of experience on six continents. He has worked with Bill Moyers, MacNeil-Lehrer, National Public Radio, the Discovery Channel and the History Channel. He has also developed communications training projects in more than a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, experience that will help Free the Slaves increase its in-country communications training assistance for our frontline partners in the future.

Please join me in honoring and thanking Peggy and congratulating Terry.

I had the luxury of swimming in wonderful memories this morning. Memories that are sweet; transcendent even. Memories of hard work and fear and triumph. Memories of being brought to my knees by the sheer grace and majesty in the eyes of the people I met in so many remote villages — usually after being stuck in the mud.

Why is it that fighting slavery seems to always involve being stuck in the mud?

Memories of gratitude because I was lucky enough to hear and share the stories of so many astonishing people around the globe. Memories of the laughter and tears and the pure brilliance of the people I’ve shared this journey with over the past decade-plus.

Not so long ago, we were such tiny groups of crazy people screaming in the dark that it was time to end slavery. Now there are millions of us and we don’t seem so crazy, well most of us at least, though I personally believe sanity is highly overrated

So, thank you.

It’s been a long time since Kevin Bales’ work inspired us all to start Free the Slaves while sitting around a table at Ginny, Kevin and Gabe’s house in Mississippi. The souls around that table inspired me – and inspire me still. The folks at FTS today and the partners around the world continue to inspire.

It’s been a long time since FTS was just a telephone in Jolene Smith’s and Carlos’ one-bedroom apartment. Almost as long since Jolene dreamed-up creating a coalition and got the money to study the merits of her idea, which is called ATEST today.

Somehow, it didn’t take long for Supriya Awasthi to get comfortable enough to explain to me: “Peg-ji, you are a pain in my #$% !’

Along the way – many people joined (or should I say drank the Kool-Aid and devoted themselves to) FTS as staff members, sometimes as staff members who didn’t happen to get paid. Their work was critical. There are many people who work so hard and so smart with and for FTS. They create their unique gifts to the struggle to end slavery.

So as the fight against slavery moves forward, I celebrate you for all you do and will do.

There is a song that only you can sing,

a talent that only you can bring.

Your song and your talent

will make all the difference.

I look forward to seeing what great things come next for FTS, and to creating new projects to help end slavery…and maybe address a few other ills.

Thanks so much for everything. The journey has been fine indeed

Since returning to the U.S., Ben has been developing a body of work based on the paintings by the formerly enslaved villagers. He has created art pieces that combine the villagers’ self portraits with portraits that he paints. You’ll be able to see his work in progress at the art show this weekend.

We’d love to see you there!

Sorry to tell you that your teacher was misinformed.

Lincoln helped make slavery illegal. But that hasn’t prevented slavery from still existing.

“If slavery is not wrong,” Lincoln wrote in 1864, “nothing is wrong.”

However, there are 27 million slaves in the world today – more than any other time in history. Thousands are here in the U.S. Just like in Lincoln’s time, slaves are forced to work without pay under threat of violence, and they’re unable to walk away.

For Lincoln’s birthday, you can help Free the Slaves educate the next generation of abolitionists.

Join the pilot phase of our Freedom Education Project on IndieGoGo. Our goal is to donate 27 books about modern slavery to schools and libraries in California. The books feature the stunning photography of Lisa Kristine, who has traveled to the frontlines to capture Free the Slaves field projects around the world. All donations, big or small, get us closer to the goal. And all proceeds help Free the Slaves fight slavery worldwide.

“In a small, progressive, college town like New Paltz, getting musicians, organizational help, and support is pretty easy to do,” Adam says. “The spirit of the community and the essence of compassion flows deep and wide in this town.” 

To build even more awareness, Adam invited Free the Slaves staffer Terry FitzPatrick to appear on Radio Active Lunch, Adam’s discussion program on Vassar University community radio station WVKR.  

Thanks to the bands: Ratboy; We Must Be; Johnny Monster Band; Los Doggies;  Radio Active Lunch Freestyle Orchestra; The Sheltering Sky; and Its Not Night, Its Space. And thanks to the many volunteers who helped make the event a success. They raised more than $400 to help Free the Slaves!

Read the letter here

If you’re still stumped for something to share, here is a recent article from the Huffington Post that is sure to inspire: Rani Hong is a survivor of child slavery, who now works as a prominent anti-slavery activist (she is co-founder of the Tronie Foundation, and an advocate for victims and survivors of slavery). Hong shares her story. She was sold into slavery when she was 7 years old.

“By the time I was eight, my physical condition and emotional state were dire. I was near death. No longer of any value to Paul, he sold me into illegal adoption. I was adopted by an American woman who thought she was getting a legitimately orphaned girl. She brought me to live with her in Washington, where I had all the privileges of American life. Through her love, I began to find stability, healing, and a sense of personal freedom.”

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