Meet Our Founder
Sarah Symons
” I learned that people all over the world were standing up against slavery, putting their lives on the line to fight it, and I felt compelled to find a way to help.”
Her Future Coalition was founded by Sarah Symons and her husband John Berger in 2005.
I was writing and recording music for TV, and in 2002, a song I had written was used as the title song in a film which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. At the festival, I saw a documentary about child sex trafficking between Nepal and India, I initially did not want to see the film. I thought it would be sad and depressing, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it . I was wrong on both counts. Although the film was deeply disturbing, it was also incredibly inspiring, in that it profiled survivors who had turned the tables.
These survivors were active in a modern day Underground Railroad, taking rescue agencies back into the brothels to save other girls. I learned that people all over the world were standing up against slavery, putting their lives on the line to fight it, and I felt compelled to find a way to help. I started by contacting one of the organizations featured in the film and was invited to visit their shelter in Kathmandu.
At the shelter, I got the idea for selling products made by survivors as a way to help them earn an income and rejoin society, and also to raise awareness of global slavery.
The organization has grown and evolved a lot over the past 20 years. We’ve added education, shelter and mental health programs, serving thousands of survivors in India, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand and Kenya.
What hasn’t changed is our commitment to providing long-term intensive support – walking alongside survivors on their long journey to freedom and independence – and our belief in collaboration with exceptional local partners. It takes teamwork to make the dream work!
Many of our girls, like Anjali, are creating a bright future for themselves, and building a more just world for women and girls. Every day working with them is a miracle, for which I am deeply grateful.”
More from Sarah
This Is No Ordinary Joy
In this deeply personal and brutally honest memoir, Sarah shares how she took on this enormous cause, personally and professionally, and how it changed her and her family's lives forever.
Standing In The Way
This compelling memoir shares Anjali’s incredible story of being trafficked at age twelve from her village in Nepal to the red light areas of Kolkata, India. Despite enduring the worst abuse imaginable, today Anjali is working to combat trafficking and protect the next generation of girls in her community.
Watch Sarah's Ted Talk
Sarah has had many surprises in her years of working with those she and her team have helped free from slavery but nothing prepared her for the messages she shares in this talk.