In a special report as 2019 draws to a close, MATT BLOMBERG, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, looks at seven initiatives aimed at helping slavery survivors rediscover their place in the world…
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Thomson Reuters Foundation
With awareness over modern-day slavery mounting in 2019, more efforts are being taken to help people rescued from extreme exploitation, from using bikes, to cakes to hairdressing, and stop them from returning into a life of servitude.
An estimated 40 million people globally are trapped in various forms of slavery, with governments and businesses developing more policies to address its causes and effects and varying organisations trying to help those abused.
Aye Than Dar (right) holds the hand of her sister Hla Thidar Myint (left) at a park in Bangkok, Thailand, on 14th November, 2015. PICTURE: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha
As we enter a new decade, the Thomson Reuters Foundation highlights seven unique initiatives helping survivors of slavery to break the cycle and rediscover their place in the world:
1. In the United States, Survivors Ink helps victims of sex trafficking who have been tattooed for the purpose of identification with a brand, serial number, or a pimp’s name. The grassroots project helps people take back ownership of their bodies and lives with artists tattooing over these markers.
2. India’s Beti Zindabard Bakery is run by a team of survivors, producing breads and sweets year round for the small town of Kansabel in central-eastern India. As year-end approaches, their workload skyrockets due to a large Christian population in Chhattisgarh state and demand for Christmas cake.
3. At Outland Denim in Cambodia, survivors make jeans with a message. The boutique factory went viral when Meghan Markle was photographed wearing a pair of the jeans into which seamstresses stitch their personal stories in a pocket.
4. Kranti works with women and girls in Mumbai’s red light district by helping to assess their talent and desires. One sex worker’s daughter learned to play drums, won a scholarship to the United States, and is now home teaching music to the next generation.
5. Bagel Bejgl is a gourmet sandwich shop in downtown Belgrade in Serbia that has been employing survivors to make and deliver their creations for 12 years, while pumping profits back into the fight against trafficking in Eastern Europe.
6. The Kate Korpi Salon in central Phnom Penh is the go-to place for Cambodia’s A-list ahead where the stylists – who go through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship – arrive via charities that work with young men and women with dark pasts.
7. Bikes in Bamboo in northern Chiang Mai on the Thai border with Myanmar aims to disrupt the flow of migrants into exploitation by employing them to make bikes from bamboo and hemp resin for export around the world. The first orders are set to go out at the start of 2020.
