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Ending Global Slavery Competition Winners Announced

August 6, 2008

More adults and children are enslaved or trapped as bonded laborers today than at any other period in human history—more than 27 million individuals worldwide. Three of the innovative programs that are fighting to expose, confront, and halt this human exploitation have just been announced winners of the “Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way” international competition sponsored by Humanity United and Ashoka’s Changemakers.

These dedicated organizations and their leaders are championing pioneering local and global solutions that vary from helping mothers in Cambodia earn enough income from at-home jobs to keep them and their children out of slave traffickers’ clutches, to helping bonded laborers and agricultural workers in India form their own labor unions and stand up for their rights as citizens.

The three winner of this social-innovation challenge are:

  • The Emancipation Network from the United States fights slavery by building the abolition movement in the United States, supporting economic alternatives and education so that survivors and high risk communities are empowered to be “slavery proofed.”
  • Carpets for Communities is a Cambodian organization that focuses on instant intervention into child trafficking and labor by empowering mothers to earn a steady income from home and return their children to school.
  • TheCode.org from the United States gives the tourism industry an operational tool to prevent and combat child sex tourism and to protect children’s rights.

    Launched in April 2008, the competition generated more than 230 nominated initiatives from nearly 50 countries. Each of the three winners, chosen through online voting, will receive a $5,000 award.

    “Ashoka’s Changemakers is a leading innovator of social change because we use our unique platform to cast a wider net in the global community of innovators,” said Charlie Brown, executive director of Changemakers. “We’re incredibly proud of our online community who stepped forward to collaborate, discuss, and draw out the most effective ideas in this important issue regarding human dignity.”

    The other 12 finalists in the “Ending Global Slavery” competition were:

  • Fundación Gente Nueva, Argentina
  • Global Workers Justice Alliance, United States
  • National Domestic Workers' Movement, India
  • Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, United States
  • Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean (CATWLAC), Mexico
  • Repórter Brasil, Brazil
  • Resposta, Brazil
  • RugMark USA, United States
  • TransFair USA, United States
  • Vimukti Trust, India
  • Visayan Forum Foundation, Philippines
  • Volunteers for Social Justice, India


    The six judges who reviewed submissions and selected the finalists were:

  • Ms. Eva Biaudet, Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe;
  • Mr. Ray Brunner, Chief Executive Officer of Design Within Reach;
  • Ms. Doris Buddenberg, Senior Manager of the United Nations’ Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking;
  • Mrs. Ndioro Ndiaye, Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration;
  • Mr. Peter Rundlet, Director of Policy for Humanity United; and,
  • Ms. Melanie Verveer, Co-Founder and Chairman of Vital Voices Global Partnership.


    About Humanity United
    Humanity United is an independent grantmaking organization committed to building a world where modern-day slavery and mass atrocities are no longer possible. Humanity United supports efforts that empower affected communities and address the root causes of conflict and modern-day slavery to build lasting peace. The organization invests in the power of ideas and individuals, bringing together the best in research, policy, and public engagement to build local and global solutions to these challenges. For more information, visit www.humanityunited.org.

    About Ashoka’s Changemakers
    Changemakers is building the world’s first global online “open source” community that competes to surface the best social solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. Changemakers focuses on thematic, collaborative competitions, inviting innovators from around the world to profile and collaborate with a global community of investors, thought leaders, and enthusiasts. Changemakers competitions to date have attracted thousands of high-impact solutions from more than 125 countries. Changemakers builds on Ashoka’s 27-year history identifying and selecting leading social entrepreneurs and its belief in an “Everyone a Changemaker” global society. Get involved. Find out more about how to nominate, enter, comment and vote in our collaborative competitions at www.changemakers.net.

    CONTACT:

    Tito Llantada
    Ashoka’s Changemakers
    +1-703-600-8257
    media@changemakers.net

    Julia Thornton
    Humanity United
    +1.650.587.2016

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