Contemporary Slave Narratives

Abirami's Narrative

Abirami became a child soldier in Sri Lanka at the age of 13. Her narrative was recorded in 2002 by staff working for the Quaker United Nations Office.

Aida's Narrative

Aida became a child soldier in The Philippines at the age of 15. Her narrative was recorded in 2002 by staff working for the Quaker United Nations Office.

Alexia's Narrative

Alexia was trafficked through Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and now works in Venezuela with an organization that helps women to escape from sex slavery. She narrated her story in 1999.

Aye's Narrative

Aye was trafficked from Thailand to Japan. She told her story to Thailand’s “Foundation of Women” in 1995.

Denise's Narrative

Denise became a child soldier in The Philippines at the age of 16. Her narrative was recorded in 2002 by staff working for the Quaker United Nations Office.

Faith's Narrative

Faith was taken from her home country of Zimbabwe into slavery in South Africa in 2004. She told her story to the International Organization for Migration, in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, in early 2005.

Giselle's Narrative

Giselle became a child soldier in The Philippines at the age of 15. Her narrative was recorded in 2002 by staff working for the Quaker United Nations Office.

Goma's Narrative

Goma was enslaved in her home country of Nepal as a teenager. She told her story to Sangeeta Lama for the Panos Oral Testimony Programme in 2002, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Gun's Narrative

This is a letter was written by a 25-year-old Thai woman from an impoverished rural family, to her Japanese lawyer, concerning why she killed her slave-master.

Guo Jiang's Narrative

Guo Jiang spent 20 years in slave labor within the Chinese prison system. He told his story to the Laogai Research Foundation, in September 1999, in Washington DC.

Helia's Narrative

Helia LaJeunesse was enslaved as a “restavec”—child domestic—in Haiti. She told her story to Peggy Callahan, for Free the Slaves, on June 15, 2007, in Haiti.

Lin Shenli's Narrative

Lin Shenli was sentenced to 18 months of “reeducation through labor” in a Chinese prison camp on January 23, 2000 for taking part in illegal Falun Gong activities. He was released in January 2002, after two years in the labor camp, and told his story to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, in November 2003 in Boston.

Philippine Narratives

Narratives from four trafficked Philippine women: Jing, Julie, Emee and Ganggang. In 2005 they told their stories to the International Organization for Migration.

Sabitha-Jayanthi's Narrative

Sabitha-Jayanthi became a child soldier in Sri Lanka at the age of 13. Her narrative was recorded in 2002 by staff working for the Quaker United Nations Office.

Shivnarayan's Narrative

Shivnarayan’s children were rescued from enslavement in a carpet loom in India, in July 2005, by the Bal Vikas Ashram, one of Free the Slaves’ partner organizations that liberates and rehabilitates child slaves.

Sonya's Narrative

Sonya was trafficked from Ukraine into sex slavery in Britain in 2002, and was held in bondage for two years and three months. She was freed in 2004 when police raided the brothel where she was working, and narrated her story the same year.

Sudan Narratives

These narratives are by individuals captured and sold into slavery in their home country of Sudan by the Popular Defense Forces (PDF), a militia trained to raid villages and take people as slaves. They told their stories to Christian Solidarity International staff in 1999 and 2007, in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Sudan, and Aweil State, Southern Sudan.

Sumalee's Narrative

Sumalee was trafficked from Thailand to Japan in 1995. She told her story to Thailand’s Foundation of Women, in Bangkok.

Vasanthi's Narrative

Vasanthi became a child soldier in Sri Lanka at the age of 10. Her narrative was recorded in 2002 by staff working for the Quaker United Nations Office.