As part of my writing about modern slavery I will be doing research on organizations, websites, and other resources. Doing the research will help me personally to know where to focus my attention. Sharing the information will hopefully help spark conversations and create awareness. My first review will be on the organization Freedom United.
Website: https://www.freedomunited.org/
Mission: to inspire and mobilize people to make changes necessary to end modern slavery.
Total income in 2016: $729,861 (75% came from major gifts, 15% from grants and foundations, 5% online giving, 5% freedom founders)
Total expenses: $726,638
6 million followers on Facebook
Previously known as Walk Free, Freedom United is a 501(c)(3) organization in the US since 2014. It “aims to unify the voices and efforts of millions of individuals and hundreds of organizations around the world to grow the movement against modern slavery and increase its collective power in order to secure long-term, sustainable change.” One of Freedom United main pillars is the creation and propagation of petitions. To date they have won 34 campaigns. Some examples of their victories are:
- After 80,000 supporters called for increased protection for Kenyan children from sexual exploitation and trafficking, the British High Commission in Kenya committed to providing training, equipment and financial assistance to the Kenyan National Police at the launch of the first child protection unit in Nairobi.
- Following Freedom United’s campaign with A World At School, and after 136,663 actions, the Education Cannot Wait fund was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit with contributions totalling over $90 million. The Fund provides education for children living in conflict or disaster zones reducing the risk of forced child labour, trafficking, forced marriage and recruitment to armed forces.
- Activists Biram Dah Abeid and Brahim Ould Bilal were freed in May 2016 on their second appeal having served 18 months imprisonment after 213,233 messages were sent to the Mauritanian government, 694 calls were made to Mauritanian Embassies, 13,212 messages were sent to Members of European Parliament, US$4,800 raised for an independent trial observer and 4,768 messages were sent to Biram in prison.
- The UK government agreed to end the employer tied visa system for overseas domestic workers reducing their vulnerability to exploitation, however the government did not agree to implement all the changes that would give domestic workers the best protection possible from slavery.
Signing petitions is easy, fast, and effective. The people at Freedom United know that and dedicate a large portion of their online presence to creating and sharing petitions through their Facebook page, Twitter, their website, e-mails, and other media. I have posted before about the benefits of online petitions (see here) and I would like to reiterate that it might be the easiest way to help not just in the fight against modern slavery, but in finding solutions for almost any social issue.
You can be an advocate against modern slavery by signing and sharing Freedom United’s petitions here. You can also access field reports where it is possible to see the impact of these petitions and what still needs to be done.
“ACCORDING TO FREEDOM UNITED CALCULATIONS, 45.8 MILLION PEOPLE ARE STILL IN SLAVERY.”
Freedom United also reduces slavery by “learning and sharing knowledge.” This is most clearly seen in their learning hub Freedom University. The topics include: What is Slavery? Products of Slavery, Domestic Slavery, Human Trafficking, Child slavery, and Forced marriage. Each section includes a short video, a test, links to related field reports and petitions (within Freedom United), and external sources like books and movies. In my opinion, the only thing that would enrich the learning hub even more would be links to news articles and shorter resources for those who don’t have the time to read a whole book or watch a whole movie but wouldn’t mind spend more than the 5 min the video lasts on the topic. A blog would be a good idea in order to share some of these resources. They also have a YouTube channel in which they share high-quality videos:
Another area in which Freedom United works is in providing support for other organizations. They partner with 71 organizations like Amnesty International, Agape International Missions, Anti-slavery, Human Rights Watch, World Hope International and equip them with “time, money, and influence.” On the website, what I could make out of these partnerships is that they collaborate on the ground in advancing their campaigns. A lot of the field reports are done in conjunction with a partner organization, for example. To my taste, I think that Freedom United should be more specific on how they work with these organizations. All I could find in the website is a list of their partners with a little snippet of information about them. But I’m more interested in learning how exactly they’re working with them. Do they send them money? How is that money being used? Do employees from Freedom United work on the ground with their partners? Do they only use their platforms to spread petitions and campaigns started by their partners or are they involved in each step of the process? A partnership can look like many different things and I’m not entirely sure what it means to Freedom United. I don’t doubt that they do a thorough job of investigating the organizations before they partner with them, but I believe that in order to “unify the voices and efforts of millions of individuals and hundreds of organizations around the world fighting modern slavery” they need to be more clear on what their modus operandi is, at least if they hope that other organizations will follow their lead.
It also caught my attention that Freedom United went from earning $226,990 in 2015 to earning $729,861 in 2016 and that they’re supported mainly by major gifts from anonymous sources. Why do online giving and “freedom founders” (people committed to supporting Freedom United on a regular basis) amount to a relatively small percentage of the financing of the organization (10%)? Is that a good thing or a bad thing and how can they and other organizations garner more support from individuals? Freedom United is definitely a growing organization that seems to be having an impact and I would encourage all of you to at least sign some of their petitions. I think they can still improve in a number of ways but perhaps since they just went through rebranding, getting a new name and website, some additional information will come in the future. Freedom United has a bold mission that will only translate into success if they continue what they’re doing and take the extra step of being completely transparent on what they do.
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