Proud2Bfree is a project to help 20 former slaves who fled their masters by empowering them economically.

Who are we?

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international membership organization fighting for the promotion of human and cultural rights for minorities, Indigenous people, and unrecognized or occupied territories.

Proud2BFree is a unique project that we are carrying out in collaboration with one of our Members: the Intiative pour la Resurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste en Mauritanie (IRA). IRA is a national NGO that is advocating for the eradication of slavery in Mauritania. We have already partnered on several projects such as on conferences, awareness campaigns and human rights advocacy projects. This project however concerns a very specific issue that IRA is facing...

Who are you helping if you help us?

We, UNPO, feel deeply concerned by the fact that still today 20% of Mauritanians live in enslavement, almost exclusively Haratin people. The Haratin are the largest minority group in Mauritania and the most politically and economically marginalized in what remains a society deeply stratified by race and class. Half of them languish in condition of de facto slavery, and the situation of those who are not is often not much better. These people have spent all their life under the domination of their master, they have no family as they have been kept away from them from a young age, they have never been to school and have never learnt any job skills, they have no belongings except for the few things that their master gave to them... What do you think they will do if they are told that they are free? The fact is that their opportunities are limited and freed slaves often return to their former master out of desperation for food, clothing, and shelter. This is what we strongly want to avoid.

This project focuses on a specific issue that IRA is facing. The organization is currently helping 20 slaves that they rescued in 2011 and 2012. Those freed slaves, all women with children, do not have any skills from which they could earn their living. By helping us, you will be helping these women to get the life they deserve!

For more information on the situation of slavery in Mauritania, watch the CNN documentary "Slavery's last stronghold". 

Why we need your help

­

As those freed slaves have nothing to earn their living with, they survive thanks to the small contributions from the IRA members and volunteers. However this situation is not sustainable in the long term.  The most efficient way to address this problem is to provide these women with the skills and tools to start their own activity and this is the goal of our campaign today. Your contribution will help us to provide these women with everything they need to run a business in making clothes and become independent. You will give these women a chance to start a new life. Yet, with helping these women, you are also helping a whole movement for the liberty of slaves and the empowerment of women. You will help us to pave the way to a world of justice, equality and human rights.

As we have said, we have been working fiercely with IRA on their fight against slavery for a long time. IRA’s President, Biram Dah Abdeid, is an anti slavery human rights defender who was arrested, ill-treated, and threatened to death penalty for his anti-slavery activism. In May 2013 he won the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. 

With this project, we want to take a step further and strengthen the fragile improvement made for slaves in Mauritania, by giving them a concrete existence.

      “You have to be the change that you want to see in the world” Gandhi

What we need 

The project will last for 3 months. In order to teach the former enslaved Haratin women skills to earn their own living and to be independent we will need € 9975.  This is very important as in order to prevent the women falling prey to their former owners, their living conditions have to improve.

The needed money for the project will be used:

- to educate the 20 Haratin women in how to sew and dye:

• pay the trainers
• buy 20 sewing machines
• buy training materials such as fabric and dye
• pay for a venue location
• pay for transportation of participants

- to make sure the women will be able to  sell their clothes and run their business:

• pay a trainer for a business workshop

We really want to reach our goal to give the Haratin women a chance to be independent and to raise more awareness for the difficult situation of the Haratin people and improve their lives. If our goal money is not reached, the raised money will still go to buying sewing machines, materials and hopefully training for the Haratin women.

Photo by @Ferdinand Reus

What you get: our Unique Perks

Through helping us you can also benefit! Besides contributing to such a good cause, helping to end slavery and giving these women and their children a chance to a better life, there are also some unique perks to receive!

- € 1: A big THANK YOU! Every contribution can make a difference!

- € 2: Your €2 will pay for one busticket for a woman to go to the training. You will receive a special thank you message on your twitter!

- € 5: You will receive a special thank you message on your Facebook! The €5 will pay for one piece of fabric!

- € 10: You will receive a personal thank you e-mail! The €10 will pay for 1 bottle of dye! 

- € 20: You will receive a card with a handwritten thank you message! The €20 will pay for 2 bottles of dye!

- € 50: The UNPO Cookbook “Native Delights” that has gathered recipes of some of UNPO’s Members from all corners of the world is for you! (+ a thank you message on Facebook/Twitter)  The €50 will pay for one sewing machine!

- For the person that has donated the highest amount of money… there will be a special surprise gift!

Other ways you can help:

It is very important to raise awareness about the situation of the Haratin people and to let as many people know about this campaign as possible! It would be a great help to our campaign and to the Haratin women and children if you could spread the word! Share on Twitter or Facebook, post on your website or blog , e-mail your friends and family, tell you neighbors and colleagues, and spread the word so we can help improve the situation of the Haratin people!