Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery » Updates

NFS Takes Action in Africa

Not For Sale — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:40:58 +0000

In war-torn Uganda, one of the most devastating forms of modern-day slavery has been the practice of child-soldiering. Young children, snatched from their homes, forced into devastating acts of unspeakable violence. Today we come together to support the recovery of Uganda and its people, and to prevent future generations from being forced into modern-day slavery.

Not For Sale has partnered with the Jesuit community in Gulu to bring recovery for former child soldiers, promote peace throughout the region, and enhance stability by educating a new generation of justice seeking Ugandans.

With your support, we will build an Amphitheater and Peace Garden for former child soldiers and the Gulu community, using music and performance to promote peace and teach reconciliation throughout Uganda. We will provide education by building a high school classroom and girl’s dormitory, thereby preventing ongoing vulnerability and creating opportunity for this rising generation.

We need only $76,700 USD to complete the project. With your support we can reach our goal! Join Not For Sale in Africa as we use music and education to provide recovery for survivors, and ensure the future freedoms of Uganda’s children.

Donate to Not For Sale in Africa

Watch the Video

Text FREEDOM to Support NFS | Asia

Not For Sale — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:05:24 +0000

In the Golden Triangle region of Thailand, where the borders of Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and Laos meet, the majority of street children are not recognized as citizens. As stateless people, they are unable to receive social services and often are unable to find meaningful employment. Not For Sale supports an abolitionist named Kru Nam who cares for 110 stateless children, rescued from sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Many children do not speak Thai, and Public schools DO NOT ACCEPT older children who can’t read or write or children with a learning, physical or mental disability. In order to prepare these students for school, Kru Nam operates a home learning program. However, The Children’s Home lacks the most basic of supplies; a proper place to teach, desks, and materials.

The other half of the children in Kru Nam’s care attend boarding schools, but on breaks they return to the Children’s Home, sleeping wherever they find space. Handling this influx is a challenge without proper space or resources.

To enhance the educational possibilities of these students, Not For Sale is building a classroom and dormitory for Kru Nam’s school in Northern Thailand. The NFS classroom will also give all children the opportunity to gain computer skills that will let them compete in the modern workplace.

Text FREEDOM to 50555 to donate $10 to Not For Sale | Asia! Help us build a dorm and classrooms for Kru Nam and the street children rescued from Human Trafficking in Thailand.

A one-time donation of $10 will be added to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. You will also receive up to 4 messages per month from Not For Sale Alerts. Msg&Data Rates May Apply. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. Service is available on most carriers. Donations are collected for the benefit of Not For Sale by the mGive Foundation and subject to the terms found atwww.mGive.com/A. To unsubscribe text STOP to 50555, for help text HELP to 50555.

NFS | Honduras–Protecting People and Conserving Nature

Not For Sale — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:28:28 +0000

Just off the Caribbean coast of Honduras lays an archipelago of islands home to an indigenous population who have been marginalized and exploited for years. An influx in tourism in the area has caused a dramatic increase in sex trafficking. In addition, the construction of large resorts, which use improper sewage and garbage systems, have pushed locals to the outskirts where they use traditional slash-and-burn methods to clear the land for grazing. These factors combined are causing substantial pollutants to run off-shore, deteriorating the world’s second largest barrier reef.

There is an inextricable link between the protection and productivity of the land and the health of its communities. Therefore, Not For Sale is building a Hospitality and Conservation Institute. The institute provides vocational training and practical experience to hundreds of vulnerable youth and unemployed women. By creating jobs and employing locals in conservation focused tourist activities such as hiking, diving, and snorkeling, both the land and the people are effectively protected and empowered.

This Earth Day, we ask that you not only wear green, but also wear orange. To protect the land, you must also protect the people who know, love, live and earn a living from the land.

Take Action Advocacy! SIGN HERE

Allison Trowbridge — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:40:11 +0000

At Global Advocacy Days | Washington DC on March 1st & 2nd, nearly 200 advocates hit the Hill to support needed legislation to combat modern-day slavery. The event was a resounding success!

But the Advocacy doesn’t stop there. We need the ongoing help of Americans in order to secure legislative funding to combat human trafficking!

Join us by signing the petition to Labor & Health and Human Services Appropriators.

Take Action. Click here!

Manpower + Not For Sale = Tour 2010

Allison Trowbridge — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:11:24 +0000

Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN), a world leader in the employment services industry, announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Not For Sale Campaign (NFSC) to advance the fight against human trafficking and forced labor.

Read the Press Release HERE!

Manpower joins the Not For Sale Campaign on its global 2010 ‘Stop Paying for Slavery’ Tour, which focuses on ending slavery in our supply chains.

Visit www.notforsaletour.org to learn more & bring the tour to a city near you!

Give the Gift of Freedom for Someone’s Birthday!

Laura Aguirre — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:02:39 +0000

Did you know Not For Sale just celebrated its 3rd Birthday?

In honor of this special holiday which comes around each day for someone, we invite you to join our birthday campaign. It’s simple! In lieu of giving your buddy that present they’re soon to return, give them the Gift of Freedom so they can use their freedom to enable the freedom of kids in Uganda and other Not For Sale Africa projects.

It’s easy as 1…2…3!

1. Make a donation to Not For Sale Africa using the Birthday page! (click here)

2. Print the Gift of Freedom print-out that we’ll send you via email.

3. Give your buddy, uncle, grandma, mailman (or whoever!) a gift that works to re-abolish slavery!

The Gift of Freedom in Africa

In Uganda, only 19% of children are able to enroll in secondary school, versus 88% in the US. Give the Gift of Freedom for Not For Sale Africa to assist projects like building a school in war-torn Gulu. Give former child soldiers and those affected by the atrocities of war the chance at a new future. The school will create an environment for peace and safety, reversing the effects of living in a marginalized community, and educating a new generation of justice seeking Ugandans.

Give Today (or bookmark these links for the next birthday celebration in your life!)

Click here to donate to Not For Sale Africa in celebration of Not For Sale’s birthday!

Click here to donate on behalf of a friend or family member through the Birthday page!

Everyone should be Free2Celebrate! Thank you for three remarkable years in the Movement to end modern-day slavery!

Top Ambassador: Matt Harper

tini — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:24:50 +0000

Meet Matt Harper: A college student at Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He became an ambassador for Not For Sale in January 2010. Since then, he has raised over $1600 from over 17 sponsors for our international project in Cambodia.

An ambassador is an individual that takes on the challenge of supporting one of our international projects. They encourage family and friends to donate to the project of their choice. In Matt Harper’s case, that was Cambodia. He took it upon himself to research trafficking patterns in Cambodia, and spread the knowledge of what he learned to his family and friends.

For more information about how you can become an ambassador, check out: www.notforsalecampaign.org/international-projects/ambassadors/

Here is what Matt has to say about his experience:

If it is possible to get to know someone through a blurb, the two questions that will help you get to know me seem to be, “What in my life has most shaped me and what in my life got me to being selected as the Top Ambassador this month?” Well, my family loves – anything and everything. That love brought us to the dinner table every night growing up, which shaped each one of us in our own way. We talked about life, we questioned decisions made and we shared our ups and downs all over some fajitas or rotisserie chicken. But one day the time came to move from my family and the beautiful southern California weather to my next life experience. I entrusted once more the ever-inspiring (and occasionally “problematic”) Jesuits with guiding my development and now find myself in Worcester, Massachusetts at the College of the Holy Cross where I am halfway through my junior year. I have been privileged enough to travel the world as well as our country and it is my desire for new experiences that has brought me to question two.

I was introduced to Not For Sale only four months ago (a blip in my being) by my classmate, now friend, and NFS state director Jamee Herbert. Through her enthusiasm and the commitment and hard work of many individuals and groups on my campus, we were able to bring David and Brant here for the Backyard Abolitionist Tour. By the end of their presentation I was ready to commit myself and commit myself rather seriously. I became a Young Ambassador and now, only a few weeks after beginning my work, have exceeded my financial goal of $1200. I owe any and all recognition from this to my friends and family who have shown and continue to show faith in me. This financial goal is important but it isn’t enough. I know that no amount of money will solve the horrors many find themselves trapped in. So, I have also committed myself to examining the root causes of Cambodian trafficking, investigating possible solutions and doing what I can to effect changes in the structures that perpetuate this problem. It’s a lot to bite off and maybe more than I can reasonably expect to make a dent in, but this is commitment, real commitment, and I don’t do enough of that.

I recently came across a quote from Annie Besant that I would like to finish with. “Plenty of people wish well to any good cause, but very few care to exert themselves to help it, and still fewer will risk anything in its support. ‘Some one ought to do it, but why should I?’ is the ever reëchoed phrase of weak-kneed amiability. ‘Some one ought to do it, so why not I?’ is the cry of some earnest servant of man, eagerly forward springing to face some perilous duty. Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.” I am not this servant, not yet and maybe never completely. But it seems to be a process worth undertaking, in whatever way we each might be called to. I wish you the best in your process.

Peace.

https://nfs.webconnex.com/mattharper

WATCH: Freedom Sunday Streamed LIVE

Allison Trowbridge — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:19:13 +0000

This Sunday, Feb.21, 9am PST

February 21st is just days away! Freedom Sunday will be an unprecedented event as churches and ministries around the world sing, proclaim, pray, give, and act in opposition to human trafficking.

PARTICIPATE: Visit the Underground Church Network Map (www.ucnmap.org) to see if a congregation in your area is observing Freedom Sunday.

WATCH: Freedom Sunday will be streamed LIVE from North Coast Calvary Church in Carlsbad, CA (host of the 2009 Global Forum on Human Trafficking). Tune in from anywhere in the world via the Not For Sale USTREAM page or www.freedomsunday.org.

Churches will be celebrating Freedom Sunday in Canada, Poland, Uganda, Pakistan, Denmark, India, Thailand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, the USA, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Jamaica, and underground in China and Vietnam.

Join them this Sunday in the international movement for freedom.

Stay tuned for upcoming information on Freedom Shabbat & the Jewish Abolitionist Movement!

How Does Your Valentines Chocolate Rate?

Kilian Moote — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:30:02 +0000

This Valentines Day our gift to you is an enhanced Free2Work.org, which will help you know what the likelihood your chocolate, is produced using bonded or forced child labor. “As consumers its our responsibility to know if the goods we buy are perpetuating exploitative labor. Unfortunately, no standard or system can ensure a product is 100% slave-free but as consumers, it is our responsibility to know which products are less likely to be produced by slaves,” David Batstone, President of the Not for Sale Campaign. “The concentration of slave labor used in chocolate production has significant implications for the credibility of the entire industry”. This week before you purchase your loved ones chocolate checkout the companies rating on Free2Work.org!

Every year on Valentines Day we purchase chocolate and other wonderful gifts for those we love and care about. These same delicious boxes of chocolate that signify love and care to us might mean pain and suffering to others. A recent report by the Department of Labor documented that some chocolate we consume is still tainted by forced labor. The report highlighted that forced and child labor continue to occur in a region that produces 70% of the worlds chocolate nine years after these labor abuses were exposed.

WATCH: Freedom Sunday Streamed LIVE Today!

Allison Trowbridge — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:23:20 +0000

This Sunday, Feb.21, 9am PST

Today is Freedom Sunday!! An unprecedented event where 600 churches and ministries around the world are singing, proclaiming, praying, giving, and acting in opposition to human trafficking.

PARTICIPATE: Visit the Underground Church Network Map (www.ucnmap.org) to see if a congregation in your area is observing Freedom Sunday.