About Us

Survivors Connect empowers survivors and grassroots movements against slavery, trafficking and violence by leveraging the power of innovative and appropriate information and communication technologies.

Our mission is to EMPOWER survivors and critical stakeholders around them, ADVOCATE for community voices, and NETWORK their voices to build stronger and effective responses to modern-day slavery and human trafficking using the power of technology.

How do we do this? Fairly simple:

• Develop products – We follow ICT4D trends to create high quality products, programs and software that significantly enhance and add value to existing anti-trafficking movements.
• Increase Capacity – Assist local groups in increasing their capacity to address protection prosecution and prevention efforts. This includes all of our training services (see Our services).
• Raise awareness - Increase the demand for similar services through partnerships and best-practices advocacy.

 

The Concept of "Ubuntu" & the "Unit of Freedom"

All of Survivors Connect’s work can be explained by our logo and the philosophy of Ubuntu. Ubuntu resonates in our image, speaking to our interconnectedness and how it affects the entire world. When we do well, it spreads out as it is for the whole of humanity. Our logo represents what we see as the “freedom unit” or Ubuntu in action. A unit of freedom in our work is a collection of people and their connectedness in any community that enable each other to enjoy basic freedoms. We have learned that one’s ability to make fully autonomous, empowered and informed choices, can only be enacted by a complex and symbiotic relationship between other units in society. Others who support my right to be free enable my freedom, and we live and work in a fashion that makes it the status quo. In the US for example, we have a whole host of actors who make up the freedom unit: protection by the law, vigilant law enforcement, grievance mechanisms, political representation, economic opportunities and other social support.

 

 

In many parts of the developing world (and even in under served communities in the West), there are gaps in the freedom unit, as displayed above. Law enforcement may be corrupt and do not address trafficking directly, society may not be aware of what slavery looks like and will turn a blind eye or frown on trafficking survivors and lack support and rehabilitation mechanisms. They may also lack access to reliable information that can prevent human trafficking and slavery. Our work at Survivors Connect helps to FILL the gaps in the “Freedom Unit” so that people all over the world can be free.

We see slavery coming to an end when all individuals in our “unit of freedom” can act in a holistic and concerted effort. We think the power of technology can help us get there, one SMS and call at a time.

We’re a global group of technology experts, researchers, activists, survivors and organizations working to develop a holistic understanding and response to modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Our team researches the latest tools in social networking, mobile/web technology and other and uses them to strengthen anti-trafficking efforts, networks, build community resilience against slavery and improve our responses to combating slavery.

 
Our Awards