Founders' Story

The Emancipation Network, MadebySurvivors, and TEN Charities were founded by Sarah Symons and John Berger in 2005. John and Sarah are married and together have build TEN from the ground up using their personal savings and dedicated community  of friends.

John gave up his 17 year carrer in investment banking to join Sarah, after Sarah  learned about the scope of human trafficking when she saw the film “The Day My God Died’ by Andrew Levine, at the Tribeca Film Festival.

According to Sarah "I write and record music for TV, and in 2002, a song I had written was used as the title song in a film (‘Nola’). With great excitement, I went down to New York to see my song in the film festival. When I looked at the film listings and saw ‘The Day My God Died’, a documentary about child sex trafficking between Nepal and India, I did not want to see it. I thought I already knew all about the issue - wrong! I thought the film would be sad and depressing, and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it - wrong again

Although the film was deeply disturbing, it was anything but depressing! In fact, the film was incredibly inspiring, in that it profiled survivors who had turned the tables – they were active in an Underground Railroad taking rescue agencies and police back into the brothels to rescue other kids, or stopping every car at border stations between Nepal and India, and with the help of border police, stopping trafficking situations in progress. They were telling others, as part of large-scale public awareness campaigns in villages where girls were reported missing.

This film showed people who were standing up against slavery, and putting their lives on the line to fight it – with limited resources, with emotional and physical scars from years of abuse.

If they could do it, I felt that I had to find a way to support them. With all the resources we have in the US, surely there was something we could do to help break the chain of slavery. I met my husband John for lunch later that day, and couldn’t wait to tell him. “I just saw a film that is going to change my life!” I guess I should have said ‘our lives’ because as it turned out, fighting slavery has become a family business.

I started by contacting Maiti Nepal, one of the anti-trafficking organizations featured in the film They put me in touch with Friends of Maiti Nepal in Boston. Directors Joe and Brigitte Collins were kind enough to let me help out for a year. Then Joe and Brigitte invited me to join them on a visit to Maiti Nepal in Kathmandu.

It was during this visit that I got the idea for selling handicrafts as a way to fight trafficking and empower survivors. We had asked the founder of Maiti Nepal, Anuradha Koirala, what kind of help she needed the most. She suggested working on self-sufficiency for the older survivors. Many had been living at Maiti’s shelter for some years, and formal education was not an option for some, because they were 16 years old or older, and had never even gone to kindergarten. Maiti Nepal was operating an informal literacy program for these girls, which included therapeutic arts, such as beadwork and sewing. We brainstormed about ways to help the girls become economically independent – it is difficult because they are stigmatized by Nepali society as 'bad girls' and prostitutes. Some have HIV/AIDS leading to further discrimination.

The next day, during a tour of the shelter, we came upon a small room piled high with sparkly purses and beaded jewelry which were being made as part of the informal education program. Well, it was obvious what to do! I brought a few hundred dollars of samples home and showed them to all my friends and family. My husband John came up with the idea of selling the products at home parties, because this would also allow us to raise awareness about human trafficking.

One year after my first visit to Nepal, we imported our first shipment of products made by survivors and high risk girls from 4 shelters in Nepal, Thailand and Cambodia. We funded our first purchase with our own contributions, and the contributions of a few concerned friends. Today we partner with 18 anti-trafficking shelters in 9 countries around the world.

That first year was a whirlwind of activity, because I was the only employee and worked as a full-time volunteer. But as the program grew, more and more people came on board to help, and with everyone’s help, our dreams for survivors are coming true. Home Awareness parties and community events have been hosted by volunteers in every state, and larger scale fundraisers and product sales have been hosted by colleges, schools, women's groups, and places of worship.

This summer, The Emancipation Network, with the help of the Clayton family, opened Destiny Productions at the Thomas Clayton Center in Calcutta India, which is the final stop on these survivors' Underground Railroad and their first experience of true independence and self-sufficiency.

John quit his job in finance in 2006, after almost 20 years on "Wall Street", to help run our rapidly growing social enterprise. Our lives are as busy and crazy as ever, but we are both so grateful to be part of a growing worldwide Abolition movement.

 

 

How TEN Helps

TEN fights trafficking and slavery in 4 ways:

1) How Does TEN help Survivors?

When survivors escape or are rescued from slavery, they need a lot of support in order to reintegrate into society. Many families will not accept them back, and in some cases it is not safe for girls to live at home (if their families sold them in the first place). So for many girls, a shelter is the safest place for them to stay immediately after returning from their place of bondage.

Also, they can get services at a shelter, such as health care, HIV/AIDS treatment if needed, education, job training, and legal aid. But no one wants to spend her whole life in a shelter. After a few years, most young women are ready to live independently, and want to find work. Finding work is difficult for anyone in depressed economies; it is more difficult for a slavery survivor because of prejudice, trauma and limited education/literacy.

TEN's handicraft programs offer these survivors a job that enables them to support themselves and live a meaningful, independent life. For those still living at the shelter, handicrafts programs provide therapeutic benefits, job training, literacy, social interaction, and a stipend for part-time work.

TEN has recently opened Destiny Productions at the Thomas Clayton Center in Calcutta India, which will enable survivors from three shelter partners in that city to support themselves and become fully independent for the first time in their lives. TEN also supports slavery survivors with reintegration services such as rent support, medical care, computer and English classes or other education.

 

2) How Does TEN Prevent Trafficking?

TEN provides an economic alternative to slavery and exploitation for women and youth at high risk for being trafficked. We work with existing prevention programs providing education and slavery. In one case, we provided funding for one of our partner programs in Thailand to expand their handicrafts program to include mothers and the rest of the community.

Often a wage as little as a hundred dollars a year is enough to keep families from selling their daughters. Sadly, in some parts of the world, girls are not intrinsically valued. But when women become artisans, wage-earners, and business-owners, their status is greatly enhanced in the community. For example, one of our partner programs in Cambodia, AFESIP found that survivors where initially ostracized when they set up a workshop. But after several months of operation, they were accepted as contributing members of society.

What defines high risk? In some villages, there are almost no teen girls anywhere to be seen – all have been sold, or have gone voluntarily into prostitution for lack of other alternatives. In some cases, selling a daughter can make the difference between barely scraping by and complete destitution. In the worst cases, people have sold relatives or neighbors out of greed, to buy a new roof or TV set. The more girls are sold in a given area, the more this practice becomes socially accepted, and in the worst cases, girls are even bred for prostitution, or groomed from early childhood for this purpose. The death of a parent or the trafficking of another sibling puts a girl at particularly high risk for being trafficked herself. Low caste, refugee status, and poverty are also risk factors.

Children born into brothel communities are at the highest risk, and we focus many of our efforts in red light communities in India.

 

3) How does TEN Support the Anti-Slavery Efforts of its Partners?

Our handicraft purchases provide much-needed revenue to the anti-trafficking agencies where survivors and high risk girls live and work. The income generated through these programs goes to pay the artisans, and also helps pay for long-term care, education, medical and psychological services, legal aid, public awareness programs, trafficking prevention, and more.

TEN partners with 18 anti-slavery organizations around the world, including Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Ukraine, Uganda, the Philippines, Tanzania, and the United States. TEN visits and communicates regularly with each of our partners, to ensure that our ethical standards are met. Many of our partner agencies rescue and care for slavery survivors, providing them with a safe place to live and a full range of support services to help them heal and reintegrate. Others operate trafficking prevention programs for children born into brothel districts, or for girls in remote, impoverished villages where they are likely to be sold into slavery.

 

4) How Does TEN Fight Slavery in the US?

TEN offers concerned persons in the US the opportunity to take action to fight human slavery, and to make a real impact in the lives of survivors and high risk girls. We are working together with other organizations to create a critical mass of concerned persons who can work together to bring pressure to bear on those who tolerate the modern practice of slavery. We have educated tens of thousands of Americans about human slavery and trafficking, mostly in small groups of 10 or 20, in volunteers’ homes, schools, and places of worship.