Featuring Sarah Symons, Co-Founder/Executive Director, Her Future Coalition
When Sarah Symons was a recording artist and TV composer, she could not have imagined becoming an anti-human trafficking advocate. But that is just what happened when she was introduced to this international injustice while watching the film “The Day My God Died,” a documentary about child sex trafficking in India and Nepal. She and her husband John Berger, a banking professional, were moved not only by the film, but to action to fight trafficking in these regions.
They learned that modern slavery is a growing worldwide problem that preys on the world’s most vulnerable people. It interrelates with so many other issues such as poverty, gender discrimination, racial or caste discrimination, child labor, child marriage, disability rights, the environment and more.
Sarah realized that if we do nothing, the evil of slavery will continue, and will grow, because the people perpetuating and benefiting from it are working to ensure its continuation. She also recognized that multiple approaches and communities are needed to raise the profile of the issue, including the arts, mass media, journalism, schools and colleges, community groups, faith communities, and individuals.
In 2005, Sarah and John founded Made By Survivors, later renamed Her Future Coalition. They applied Sarah’s talents and John’s organizational experience, to creating an organization by and for survivors. Her Future Coalition provides vocational training, education and employment to over a thousand survivors in India, Nepal, Cambodia and Thailand. Using training programs in professions like metalsmithing and accounting, Her Future Coalition, provides hope and a trajectory forward for those who have been victimized by trafficking. Survivors of trafficking are trained to make products that allow them to support themselves. Items like jewelry, scarves, and woven bags are ethically made and offer residual benefits to the anti-human trafficking movement worldwide.