Grab this widget and post it on your blog or facebook. Challenge your community to give as much you have. Watch how quickly your tribe can win a battle.
Call+Response: I Gave Widget

Help rescue and care for over 250 children in slavery through Free The Slaves

Amount Needed: $5000

Rescue

Bringing freedom: Free the Slaves works with locally based organization Bal Vikas Ashram (BVA) to rescue and rehabilitate children in slavery and stop the trafficking from home villages. BVA runs a rehabilitation center for children who have been enslaved in the carpet industry, brick kilns and stone quarries in Uttar Pradesh, north India. Most of these children have been trafficked hundreds of miles from desperately poor home villages in the state of Bihar.

When local volunteers or BVA staff learn about children held in slavery, they pressurize local police to join in a raid to rescue the children. Also, BVA trains transport police and railway porters to report on women and children who may be in transit to slavery. In 2007, BVA rescued 278 children. With additional funds, BVA could expand the number of women and children rescued and the number of villages supported to end trafficking.

Care and Rehabilitation

Reclaiming childhoods: Some of the rescued children go to stay at the ashram (rehabilitation center) for approximately 6 months, while BVA staff traces their parents. During their stay, the children take time to recover: cooking and eating, getting rest and gradually joining in games and growing food in the ashram garden. They then begin to learn reading, writing and math, at the same time as learning about their rights under India’s laws. There is plenty of time for recreation, and older children gain experience in carpentry and tailoring.

Prevention

Stopping trafficking at its source: BVA also works in some of the worst affected home villages in Bihar. BVA builds trust with these communities through returning the children, and obtaining the rehabilitation grants from the government, worth approximately $500 each. In 2007, BVA obtained these grants for 130 families, and helped them invest in income-generating activities.

In over 50 villages BVA is supporting Community Vigilance Committees. These CVCs watch over women and children at risk of trafficking, and alert the police if traffickers are seen around the village—and see to it that the police do their job. Through these CVCs, the villagers take on all the causes of trafficking: lack of functioning schools, corrupt local officials who pocket government aid for the poor, and violence against women. Often, the returned children become community activists, insisting that children attend school.

Impacts in the Last Year: The Numbers

• 226 children rescued in 34 rescue operations
• 543 calls to hotline to report new cases of human trafficking
• 273 survivors returned home
• 130 rehabilitation grants obtained for families of victims
• 36 housing grants obtained
• 37 Community Vigilance Committees to raise awareness in local areas, reaching 23,228 people
• 600 Trained key officials and representatives at the State and District-level on how to combat human trafficking.
• 2,328 Participants trained. (Trainings include workshops for railway porters, bus staff and other transportation staff, to help them prevent trafficking. They now actively inform staff about cases and assisting with rescues and prosecution. Trainings are also provided for media reporters focused on how the media can play a positive role in the interests of survivors of human trafficking.)
  

More about Free the Slaves

Free the Slaves works with locally based organizations in Ghana, Haiti, India, Nepal and Sudan to free people from slavery, help them rebuild their lives, and do what it takes to end slavery in their communities. Informed by this on-the-ground work, Free the Slaves brings real-world solutions to policymakers, business leaders and others to end slavery for good. Free the Slaves also brings the voices of slaves to individuals in the United States and elsewhere, so that they can be inspired to help.

Release of 17 children from slavery in a carpet factory

January 2008

On January 28, 2008, the DDWS (the agency that set up and manages Bal Vikas Ashram) successfully concluded a three-month rescue mission to release seventeen children from bonded labor in a carpet loom in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh. Through its Bhadohi District Coordinator (DC), DDWS worked closely with Community Vigilance Committee (CVC) members, Nepali CVC members, families of the bonded children, and state police and governmental officials to organize and carry out the rescue mission. Following the raid on the carpet loom to free the children, release certificates were issued for all seventeen children. Ten children were brought to the Bal Vikas Ashram, and seven have been integrated back with their families.

The planning of the rescue operation began in October 2007 when active CVC members and volunteers in Bhadohi district identified cases of children from Araria, Bihar State, and Bhadohi who were being held in bonded labor at the carpet loom. The identified cases of bonded labor were reported to the Bhadohi DC. Before taking any action, the DC visited the loom to confirm the reported cases and also asked a number of Nepali CVC members in the loom to go on a similar fact-finding mission. Some of the Nepali carpet weavers moved to the Bhadohi loom for work and as a result were well-positioned to gather information about children from Araria, Bihar State, who were working in the loom. The cases were confirmed by the DC, and he gave his support to DDWS for a rescue mission.

The DC filed an application to conduct a rescue mission at the District Magistrate’s (DM) office in order to obtain official authorization of the rescue mission from governmental authorities. The DC also successfully applied for membership in the district Task Force Committee.

Despite this initial success in getting the authorities involved in the rescue mission, there was little immediate follow-up or action on the part of the authorities. The DC enlisted the help of the Assistant District Magistrate, and also filed an application for the rescue mission at the state police office. This application stressed the miserable condition of the children living in bonded labor: inadequate food and entrapment at the loom, where the children were unable to leave even to visit their families. Finally, yielding to the continued pressure, the authorities approved the rescue mission and agreed to coordinate with the DDWS team, CVC members and volunteers to conduct the rescue mission.

On the day of the rescue mission, a mob in favor of the slaveholders surrounded the rescue team and pressured the team to leave. Fortunately, a number of volunteers from a nearby village who were on the rescue team were not recognized by the mob and were able to slip inside the loom to get the children. The police also provided pivotal support to disband the mob, which at one point had begun to throw stones at the rescuers. Although the children in bonded labor were initially scared of the rescue team, the children were assured of their security and were successfully removed from the loom. They were presented before the magistrate for a recording of the statement, and today are no longer in bonded labor.