5 Ways to Fight Slavery This Holiday Season

Winter is a season of gatherings and gift giving. So why not make it count for something? Spread the joy of giving and receiving, and have a positive impact on the world while doing so.

1. Give a survivor made gift. Visit the Empowerment Store and help support a survivor as she embraces her new life.
2. Throw a holiday fundraising party. This holiday season, celebrate compassion, hope, and life by asking your holiday party guests to bring a donation of your suggested amount which you will donate to the Somaly Mam Foundation. Explain to them what their money will help give the gift of survival and empowerment. 
3. Give the gift of knowledge and awareness. Purchase Somaly Mam's book The Road of Lost Innocence and share it with your friends and loved ones. They will finish the book changed, aware of the horrors aof human trafficking and hopefull inspired to take action.
4. Buy slave free gifts. Check out the Ethical Shopping Guide for slave-free gift ideas.
5. Use fair-trade ingredients in your baking. You know those chocolate chips in your delicious holiday cookies? Sadly, the cocoa beans may have come from a farm that uses child slaves. One of the most in-demand products during the holiday season, chocolate has a not-so-sweet dark side. Child slaves in West Africa work for no money, starving and tortured. Purchase fair-trade chocolate from companies such as Equal Exchange to make sure that satisying your sweet tooth doesn't harm others. 

Looking for more gift ideas? Check out this list of gifts that benefit the Somaly Mam Foundation.

Use this guide to take action against slavery during the holiday season with your friends and families, but don't stop there. Together we can give others a reason to celebrate.

Voices for Change and Shay Mitchell: Slavery is Real, I Know It

Actress Shay Mitchell introduces Voices For Change, strong and empowered survivors of sexual slavery from Cambodia. These women have seen firsthand the horrors of human trafficking, and now they work every day to eradicate this evil.

Voices For Change is a platform for survivors to use their voice, tell their story, and raise awareness of sex slavery. Their voices are heard in courts of law, public service announcements, and events. These women are survivors - they are not weak, nor are they helpless. They are helping themselves by helping others and bringing awareness to this horrific truth. Slavery is real.