The Emancipation Network - Fighting Human Trafficking and Slavery with Empowerment

Women and Girls Renewing the Earth and Rebuilding their Lives

Sarah Symons — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:53:07 +0000

The Emancipation Network's newest project is to build a biodiesel plant in Boisar, India, at the Rescue Foundation shelter for survivors of brothel slavery. The plant will enable us to train survivors in renewable energy management, agriculture, and animal husbandry, and will provide dairy products and fuel for the shelter home. Excess energy and dairy products will be sold locally to provide sustainable income for the survivors and shelter

Weddings and a New Family for Sex-Trafficking Survivors

Sarah Symons — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:30:32 +0000

In India, just like here in America, weddings are fun and powerful celebrations that bring together families. Weddings are normal, happy, and a core part of the progression of life. But weddings are not typically part of the normal happy life for survivors of sex trafficking. Some have even been trafficked by means of false marriages. More importantly, it’s very hard for survivors of sex trafficking to get over the stigma that they are somehow bad or dirty, and to get accepted into a new family or community.

To one of our partners in India, Rescue Foundation, this was unacceptable. Rescue Foundation rescues girls out of sex trafficking with the goal of reintegrating them back into their typically rural, agricultural communities. These communities often have a shortage of eligible women to marry due to a gender selection.

Breaking the bonds of Bonded Labor

Sarah Symons — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:41:20 +0000

In Firojpur, a remarkable group of children who were recently working as slaves alongside their parents are now learning to read and write in a simple bamboo bungalow. They are students at TEN's Freedom School in Uttar Pradesh, India. The hands now weilding pencils held instead the tools of heavy labor, working in quarries or toiling on farms from dawn to dusk, and the future seemed devoid of other alternatives. Millions of families are enslaved in bonded labor across South Asia. They never see the benefits of their dirty, dangerous or degrading work -Instead, they are working off ‘debts’ typically less than $100, which only accumulate over time as the system is designed to keep them in bondage indefinitely. Threats of violence, or actual violence, serve to keep them enslaved, and many do not realize that bonded labor is an illegal practice.

Upcoming Events to Fight Slavery

John Berger — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:23:27 +0000

Washington DC, Sat. Nov. 21 at 8pm, Washington Club on Dupont Circle.

The ball is an elegant and fun black-tie gala with a cocktail buffet, a silent auction and a great band for dancing. Proceeds will benefit Innocents at Risk, Polaris Project and The Emancipation Network to support their work fighting human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Tickets are on sale now at www.CapitalCityBall.org

NEW YORK CITY - Quest Bookstore, Nov. 7th, Shop for Freedom Party featuring MadebySurvivors handicrafts, 4-6pm

BOSTON - Oct. 26-31 Human Trafficking Awareness Week at Eastern Nazarene College.

Email info@madebysurvivors.com if you want us to list your Abolition Event!

Maine Mom Becomes MadeBySurvivors Ambassador - Fighting Slavery from Home

John Berger — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:22:23 +0000

Becky Mallory, a MadeBySurvivors Ambassador, was just featured in the news! You can watch the story HERE.

Polaris Project - Support their work in Chicago!

John Berger — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:34:58 +0000

With a few clicks of your mouse you can join Polaris Project in helping the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) win a much-deserved $20,000 grant to fund their new project, Engaging Young Men In Ending Violence Against Women.

India Trip Report 2009

John Berger — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:36:33 +0000

Each year we take a team of volunteers to work with survivors and high risk kids at our partner shelters in Calcutta. We do building restoration projects and therapeutic arts with kids, teens and adults, to build relationships and to learn more about their needs, hopes and dreams, so that we can provide continuing and meaningful services throughout the year.

Read the full report from this year's trip. Also, check out the video from the trip (embedded at the end of the post)

Destiny - New opportunities for survivors

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:10:19 +0000

Destiny Productions in Calcutta, India is our initiative to help human trafficking survivors from four area shelters become fully independent, and to slavery-proof them and their children into the future. Click here to SEE DESTINY PRODUCTS