Free the Slaves

Through social mapping, Barangay Paralegal Volunteers identified community assets, vulnerable groups, and risk areas in their own barangays, grounding their reflection in local realities on the final day of training.

On 18 July 2026, Free the Slaves and Katilingban sa Kalambuan Org., Inc. (KKI) concluded the Community Liberation Initiative (CLI) Module 1: Educating and Mobilizing Vulnerable Communities at the Garden Orchid Hotel in Zamboanga City. Building on the previous two days, participants took part in work plan reflection activities, considering how their learning could be applied within their own communities.

The final day reinforced that meaningful prevention starts with understanding local context. Through individual reflection, participants considered how they might carry forward the knowledge and skills gained throughout the training into their work as barangay leaders and advocates.

As the training concluded, Free the Slaves and KKI reaffirmed their commitment to equipping community leaders with the knowledge, skills, and practical tools needed to strengthen community-based efforts to prevent human trafficking, modern slavery, and other forms of exploitation.

Free the Slaves is hiring a Policy and Advocacy Officer to lead our work at the United Nations and other multilateral bodies, including the UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, UN Human Rights Council, the Business and Human Rights agenda, the Organization of American States, the European Commission, and Alliance 8.7.

This role shapes how the United Nations and regional institutions respond to modern slavery. Learn more and apply: FreetheSlaves.net/Careers

Barangay Paralegal Volunteers moved from understanding what human trafficking is to exploring why it happens, and how communities can help prevent it, on Day 2 of the Community Liberation Initiative (CLI) Module 1: Educating and Mobilizing Vulnerable Communities.

On 17 July 2026, Free the Slaves and Katilingban sa Kalambuan Org., Inc. (KKI) continued the training at the Garden Orchid Hotel in Zamboanga City. Through interactive storyboard presentations, plenary discussions, and rights-based learning, participants examined the drivers of trafficking, the methods traffickers use, and the importance of early community intervention.

The sessions also strengthened participants' understanding of human rights, child rights, women's rights, and labor rights.

The afternoon sessions encouraged participants to examine common myths about gender, sexual exploitation, abuse, and consent, while exploring how gender-responsive, survivor-centered approaches can strengthen prevention efforts. Through open dialogue, participants reflected on the complementary roles of local governments, civil society organizations, and communities in building sustainable protection systems.

The training was held in observance of the 2026 National Anti-Trafficking in Persons Awareness Month, led by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).

Ending modern slavery is not the work of one sector alone. It requires communities, survivors, civil society, governments, and businesses acting together, each holding a piece of the solution.

On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, Free the Slaves reaffirms this whole of society approach. Our Community Liberation Model equips local communities to identify and respond to exploitation. Through Alliance 8.7 engagements, survivors are bringing lived expertise directly to national roadmaps and policy tables, shaping the decisions that affect their own communities. Governments and institutions are expanding and implementing the legal frameworks that make protection possible. Companies are strengthening due diligence and monitoring in high-risk supply chains, turning human rights commitments into practical community based systems on the ground.

Progress happens when these efforts connect. Today we recognize the survivor leaders, community organizers, and partners who are building those connections every day.

Community leaders in Uttar Pradesh prevented 34 unsafe migration attempts before workers ever left home.

Members of Migrant Vigilance Committees (MVCs) and survivor leaders from Azad Shakti Abhiyan (ASA), trained through Free the Slaves' Community Liberation Initiative (CLI), verified recruiters and job offers, counseled prospective migrants and their families, and encouraged people to delay or cancel departure when arrangements looked unsafe.
In one case, two people preparing to migrate had their arrangements delayed for verification. One person canceled the trip after concerns emerged about the offer. The other proceeded once the opportunity was confirmed as legitimate.

These interventions help people migrate with accurate information and real choices. Workers in these communities are also asking more questions on their own, negotiating recruitment fees, and seeking advice before accepting an offer.

This marks a change in how Jaunpur and Bhadohi districts handle migration risk. Community leaders now identify danger before departure instead of responding to exploitation after it has already happened.

NEW RESOURCE: Where does exploitation risk concentrate in Latin American supply chains, and what can governments, companies, and civil society do about it?

Conversaciones sobre Esclavitud Moderna (Conversations on Modern Slavery — Latin America Edition) answers that question through 10 conversations with practitioners who are shaping the region's response: Rocío Urón Durán, Cecilia Ramírez, Fernanda Hopenhaym, Jamile Freitas, Marcela Martínez, Sebastián Arévalo Sánchez, José Julián Tole, Quinn Kepes, Josefa Condori Quipes, and Thomas Wissing.

What you'll find inside:

🗺️ A precision map of where poverty, inequality, and migration status converge to concentrate risk, so resources reach the places where impact is greatest.

📊 A market access tool. With U.S. Section 307 enforcement intensifying and the EU Forced Labor Regulation taking effect in December 2027, this is the evidence base exporters and their partners need now.

🏛️ An institutional playbook, from Brazil's three decades of continuity to Chile's due diligence project bill, the book highlights models that are already working.

🤝 Survivor and community expertise: the frontline knowledge that makes institutional and corporate responses effective.

This is the first Spanish-language collection of its kind. If you work on Human Rights, trade compliance, supply chain due diligence, or development in Latin America, this resource was built for you.

Download it here: https://freetheslaves.net/a-new-tool-for-action-ten-conversations-that-open-opportunities-against-modern-slavery-in-latin-america/

https://freetheslaves.net/una-nueva-herramienta-para-la-accion-diez-conversaciones-que-abren-oportunidades-contra-la-esclavitud-moderna-en-america-latina/

Two children went missing in a community in Uttar Pradesh where Free the Slaves works alongside the survivor leaders of Azad Shakti Abhiyan (ASA).

A trained survivor leader recognized the danger right away and called India's 112 emergency helpline while coordinating with local police. Officers located both children and returned them to their families, reducing the risk of trafficking or other harm.

FTS was not part of that response. It came from a leader trained through our Community Liberation Initiative (CLI), the program building survivor leadership in Jaunpur and Bhadohi districts since August 2025, focused on recognizing risk early and knowing which government mechanism to activate.

A community's protection should not depend on FTS being present for every case. This is evidence that the community-based structures are starting to function independently.

Training like this depends on steady funding. Your monthly gift helps us keep building leaders like this one, in Uttar Pradesh and everywhere we work. Become a monthly donor at freetheslaves.net/donate.

From July 10 to 16, Free the Slaves (FTS) participated in bringing survivor experts, government counterparts, and local partners together in Guatemala City. The week included a full day of advocacy training and meetings with MINTRAB and SVET officials.

On July 11, women with lived experience of Child Labor and its Worst Forms gathered in Guatemala City for a day of training in strategic communication and policy advocacy. FTS Executive Director Bukeni Waruzi opened the session, and Cinthia Belbussi, Carolina Quinteros, and facilitator Aura Rodríguez led modules on network-building, narrative development, and spokesperson skills, including simulated media interviews and ethical documentation practice. By the end of the day, the group had formed the Child Labor Survivors Network, which they will run themselves.

The training built directly on recommendations these survivor experts gave Guatemala's Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MINTRAB) in May. What started as testimony in May became a working advocacy group in July.
That same week, FTS signed a Letter of Intent with the Secretariat Against Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Trafficking in Persons (SVET) to coordinate Human Trafficking prevention, training and survivor engagement. Guatemala also reaffirmed survivor participation in its National Child Labor Prevention and Eradication Committee (PETI).

Read more on the Blog: https://freetheslaves.net/survivors-take-the-lead-a-week-that-moved-guatemalas-anti-child-labor-agenda-forward/

Identifying a human rights risk factor is one part of an effective response system. Documenting it accurately, following the right referral pathway, and coordinating across agencies are also essential.

On June 8 and 9, 2026, Free the Slaves and the Cameroon Child Rights Civil Society Organizations Network (CAM-CRIN) convened a two-day investigator training workshop at the regional office of the Commission on Human Rights of Cameroon. Approximately 15 investigators, social workers, and government representatives from MINAS, MINTSS, and the CDHC East Region built shared legal frameworks, investigative methodology, survivor-centered interviewing skills, and the documentation practices that functional referral systems require.

The East Region is the first of five cocoa-producing regions where this training will be delivered. The goal is a coordinated response architecture across Cameroon's major cocoa belt, where a report made in a community reaches someone who knows exactly what to do with it.

Read our latest blog to learn what the two days covered and how the lessons from the East will shape the regions ahead.
https://freetheslaves.net/investigators-training-workshop-on-human-rights-violations-in-cocoa-growing-communities/