Human Thread Foundation

Shine a light 🕯️

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, has traveled far and wide to document modern slavery unfolding before our eyes. She promised to shine a light on the suffering millions of people endure wherever she went.

In the arid outskirts of a small Indian village, where the dust rises with each step and the sun beats down mercilessly, lives a young boy named Arav. At just five years old, Arav's world is defined not by play or schooling, but by labor. His parents, caught in a relentless cycle of debt, work under conditions that are harsh and unforgiving. As a result, Arav spends his days not in a classroom, but alongside his family in the fields, where they toil from dawn until dusk to meet the demanding quotas set by their employer.

The concept of "debt bo***ge" has ensnared Arav's family, forcing them to work for little or no pay under the threat of violence or even harsher penalties. This form of modern slavery means that even the youngest members of the family, like Arav, are not spared. With his parents unable to earn enough to repay the ever-growing debt, Arav's childhood is sacrificed for additional labor that might lighten the family’s burden.

Arav's days are long and filled with difficult tasks that are unsuitable for someone his age. He often helps with gathering crops and other physically demanding chores, which leaves him exhausted and with little time or energy to play or learn. Despite his young age, the seriousness in his eyes reflects an awareness of his family’s desperate circumstances.

The vulnerability of children like Arav to exploitation in such settings is a grim reality. Without access to education and trapped in a cycle of poverty and labor, these children face immense obstacles to changing their futures. Arav’s situation highlights the urgent need for intervention to address child labor and forced labor. It calls for the enforcement of labor laws that protect children and ensure that families are not exploited through manipulative debt schemes.

*Arav is a fictional character created for awareness-raising purposes.

Shine a light 🕯️

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, has traveled far and wide to document modern slavery unfolding before our eyes. She promised to shine a light on the suffering millions of people endure wherever she went.

In the arid expanses of Rajasthan, India, Savita dreamed of a simple life supporting her family. However, when a severe drought devastated their village, she found herself desperate for work to prevent her family from falling into poverty. Seizing an opportunity, Savita accepted an offer from a man promising well-paying work in the city, hoping it would secure her family's future.

Upon arrival, Savita discovered she had been deceived. She was confined to a garment factory, a far cry from the promised job. The factory was more like a prison, with barred windows and locked doors, and the work was grueling. Forced to operate sewing machines for long hours under strict supervision, Savita and her co-workers faced harsh penalties for any mistakes. They were also burdened by an ever-increasing “debt” for their travel and accommodation, a tactic to keep them bound to the factory.

Isolated from her family, Savita found strength in her memories of home and her resolve to escape and return. Her ordeal highlights the harsh realities of modern slavery under the guise of employment, emphasizing the need for stronger labor protections and vigilant enforcement to protect workers.

Savita's story serves as a reminder of the importance of safeguarding workers' rights and dignity, urging support for efforts that ensure employment is a means of betterment, not exploitation. Through stories like hers, we are called to action to help prevent such abuses and advocate for the fair treatment of all workers.

*Note: Savita is a fictional character created for awareness-raising purposes.

Shine a light 🕯️

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, has traveled far and wide to document modern slavery unfolding before our eyes. She promised to shine a light on the suffering millions of people endure wherever she went.

This is Aakriti*. She is seven years old and was born in Bengaluru (Bangalore) in India into a poor family. Her father left when she was a baby, leaving her mother in charge of her and her two older sisters. Being illiterate, it was difficult for Aakriti’s mother to make enough money to support her family.

So, Aakriti and her sisters had to help. At only four years old, Aakriti was forced to beg for money in the streets of Bangalore for hours on end. Sometimes, she spent up to 14 hours wandering through the streets in search of people’s empathy and change. She will probably never learn how to read and write, diminishing any dreams she has for the future.

Verbal and physical abuse are on Aakriti’s daily agenda. Upon returning her collected money to her mother, she is often abused for not bringing back enough. Then, her mother uses the money to satisfy her alcohol addiction, and Aakriti goes hungry once again.

Stories like Aakriti’s present a common experience for children in India and around the world. Forced begging is a common form of modern slavery. Head to our website to learn more!

* Aakriti is a fictional character created for awareness-raising purposes.

This June 20 is World Refugee Day. This year marks 75 years since the world made a promise: that people forced to flee have the right to seek safety.

That promise is being broken every day — not just at borders, but in the places refugees and migrants end up when official channels are closed to them. Migrant workers are three times more likely to end up in forced labour than local workers. The more dangerous and irregular the journey, the more that risk compounds.

Lisa has photographed people on those journeys — migrants riding freight trains, moving through the margins of the world with nothing to protect them. What her camera captures is what statistics cannot: the specific human cost of a system that forces people into invisibility, and what happens to people when they become invisible.

Displacement doesn't end exploitation. Too often, it's where exploitation begins.

Today is World Day Against Child Labour. 138 million children are still trapped in it.

In this CNN interview, Lisa talks about what she witnessed in brick kilns in Nepal, gold mines in Ghana, fishing boats on Lake Volta — children carrying loads heavier than their own bodies, working in water they don't know how to swim in, breathing dust that will damage their lungs for life. She talks about the moment a tear came down her face in a kiln and an abolitionist had to stop her — because showing emotion wasn't safe, not for her, not for them.

She also talks about what she wants people to take away from her work: that when we see a child in forced labour, we should recognise them as our own child. That all children are our children.

This is why the Human Thread Foundation exists. Not to raise awareness in the abstract, but to bring that human evidence — those faces, those eyes, those lives — to the people who have the power to change something.

Link in comments to read the full CNN interview.

At Davos in 2025, senior HPE executive John Schultz said it plainly: there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history. And we are losing the war.

Initiatives like the Global Data Partnership Against Forced Labour are trying to change that by pooling intelligence across thousands of supply chain data points to detect forced labour risks that no single organisation could see alone. It's important, necessary work.

But data has a limit. It can map the scale of exploitation. It cannot show you the exhaustion in a child's face after a shift in a brick kiln in Nepal. It cannot convey what it means to work in mercury-infested water in an illegal gold mine in Ghana. It cannot make a legislator feel the weight of what is actually happening at the bottom of a supply chain.

That's what Lisa's photography does. And it's why the Human Thread Foundation exists, not to raise awareness, but to bring human evidence to the moments when it can change something. To make visible what supply chains are designed to keep hidden.

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, has traveled the world documenting modern slavery as it unfolds in plain sight. Through her work, she has promised to shine a light on the suffering millions of people endure, wherever that suffering may be hidden.

In a city far from his home village, tucked behind construction sites and guarded factory gates, lives a young boy named Samir. He is only five years old, but his world is confined to a crowded labor camp where his parents work from sunrise to nightfall. They are migrant workers—part of the invisible engine building the cities others call home.

Samir shares a single, windowless room with his parents and two other families. There are no toys, no schoolbooks, no space to run. Just beds pressed against walls, cooking pots tucked beneath them, and a thin curtain offering the illusion of privacy.

His parents leave before he wakes and return long after dark. Their work is dangerous, poorly paid, and bound by promises that disappeared when they arrived. Housing, fair wages, and a better future were offered. Debt, fear, and silence took their place.

Samir spends his days wandering the camp with other children—unattended, unnoticed, and unprotected. He plays near heavy equipment and uncovered drains. He knows the sound of hammers better than a teacher’s voice and cement dust better than crayons or books. He has never been to school.

In quiet moments, he curls into his mother’s arms and asks questions she cannot answer: “When will we go home?” “Why can’t I come with you?” “Will I work too, when I’m big?”

Samir’s story is not unusual. Around the world, migrant families live and work in conditions that threaten their safety, dignity, and future. Children like Samir are growing up in the shadows—unregistered, uneducated, and unseen.

By sharing his story, we shine a light on the hidden lives of migrant workers and their children. Behind every building, road, and garment are human hands—and sometimes, very small ones.

* Samir is a fictional character created for awareness-raising purposes.

This is not a schoolbag.

It’s a slab of stone, tied with rope and wood, pressing into the shoulders of a child in Nepal.

Across the mountainous regions of Nepal, stone-carrying is a form of bonded labor that traps families in intergenerational cycles of poverty. Children – some as young as 8 – are forced to carry heavy stone slabs for hours each day, earning mere pennies. Often, their parents are also trapped in debt bo***ge or exploitative labor, leaving children with no choice but to contribute to household survival.

These children walk long, dangerous paths, barefoot or in thin sandals, hauling up to 60 kilograms (130 lbs) on their backs. The labor is back-breaking, the pay is exploitative, and the silence around it is deafening.

At the Human Thread Foundation, we expose hidden systems of modern slavery through powerful visual storytelling. This image by Lisa Kristine confronts us with a reality too many ignore.

This is not just about poverty – it’s about injustice. It’s about a world where children are treated as tools instead of beings with dreams.

Let’s change the narrative.

📢 Share. Educate. Advocate.

Together, we can help lift this weight forever.

The Human Thread Foundation – ever wondered what the name stands for?

The name The Human Thread Foundation symbolizes the interconnectedness of all people and the fundamental dignity of every human life. Just like a thread weaves through fabric to create something whole, our humanity is interwoven—we are all connected, and no one should be left behind.

This idea is particularly powerful in the context of the foundation’s mission: to end human trafficking and modern slavery. It highlights how the exploitation of one person affects the integrity of the whole, emphasizing that dignity, freedom, and justice should be upheld for every individual. At The Human Thread Foundation, we work to unravel injustice and weave hope, ensuring that everyone has the dignity, freedom, and opportunity they deserve.

Together, we can end human trafficking. Together, we form The Human Thread.