Photos that bear witness to modern slavery
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0:01 - 0:07I'm 150 feet down an illegal mine shaft in Ghana.
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0:07 - 0:11The air is thick with heat and dust,
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0:11 - 0:15and it's hard to breathe.
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0:15 - 0:18I can feel the brush of sweaty bodies passing me
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0:18 - 0:22in the darkness, but I can't see much else.
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0:22 - 0:26I hear voices talking, but mostly the shaft
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0:26 - 0:30is this cacophony of men coughing,
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0:30 - 0:34and stone being broken with primitive tools.
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0:34 - 0:38Like the others, I wear a flickering, cheap flashlight
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0:38 - 0:43tied to my head with this elastic, tattered band,
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0:43 - 0:46and I can barely make out the slick tree limbs
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0:46 - 0:49holding up the walls of the three-foot square hole
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0:49 - 0:54dropping hundreds of feet into the earth.
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0:54 - 0:57When my hand slips, I suddenly remember a miner
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0:57 - 1:01I had met days before who had lost his grip
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1:01 - 1:06and fell countless feet down that shaft.
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1:06 - 1:08As I stand talking to you today,
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1:08 - 1:12these men are still deep in that hole,
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1:12 - 1:15risking their lives without payment or compensation,
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1:15 - 1:19and often dying.
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1:19 - 1:24I got to climb out of that hole, and I got to go home,
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1:24 - 1:30but they likely never will, because they're trapped in slavery.
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1:30 - 1:33For the last 28 years, I've been documenting
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1:33 - 1:35indigenous cultures in more than 70 countries
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1:35 - 1:39on six continents, and in 2009 I had the great honor
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1:39 - 1:44of being the sole exhibitor at the Vancouver Peace Summit.
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1:44 - 1:47Amongst all the astonishing people I met there,
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1:47 - 1:50I met a supporter of Free the Slaves, an NGO
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1:50 - 1:56dedicated to eradicating modern day slavery.
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1:56 - 1:59We started talking about slavery, and really,
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1:59 - 2:01I started learning about slavery,
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2:01 - 2:05for I had certainly known it existed in the world,
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2:05 - 2:08but not to such a degree.
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2:08 - 2:11After we finished talking, I felt so horrible
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2:11 - 2:15and honestly ashamed at my own lack of knowledge
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2:15 - 2:18of this atrocity in my own lifetime, and I thought,
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2:18 - 2:23if I don't know, how many other people don't know?
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2:23 - 2:27It started burning a hole in my stomach, so within weeks,
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2:27 - 2:30I flew down to Los Angeles to meet with the director
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2:30 - 2:33of Free the Slaves and offer them my help.
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2:33 - 2:38Thus began my journey into modern day slavery.
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2:38 - 2:41Oddly, I had been to many of these places before.
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2:41 - 2:44Some I even considered like my second home.
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2:44 - 2:52But this time, I would see the skeletons hidden in the closet.
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2:52 - 2:54A conservative estimate tells us there are more than
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2:54 - 2:5827 million people enslaved in the world today.
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2:58 - 3:02That's double the amount of people taken from Africa
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3:02 - 3:06during the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade.
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3:06 - 3:09A hundred and fifty years ago, an agricultural slave
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3:09 - 3:13cost about three times the annual salary
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3:13 - 3:15of an American worker.
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3:15 - 3:19That equates to about $50,000 in today's money.
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3:19 - 3:24Yet today, entire families can be enslaved for generations
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3:24 - 3:29over a debt as small as $18.
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3:29 - 3:32Astonishingly, slavery generates profits
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3:32 - 3:37of more than $13 billion worldwide each year.
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3:37 - 3:40Many have been tricked by false promises
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3:40 - 3:45of a good education, a better job, only to find
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3:45 - 3:48that they're forced to work without pay
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3:48 - 3:54under the threat of violence, and they cannot walk away.
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3:54 - 3:57Today's slavery is about commerce,
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3:57 - 4:01so the goods that enslaved people produce have value,
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4:01 - 4:06but the people producing them are disposable.
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4:06 - 4:11Slavery exists everywhere, nearly, in the world,
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4:11 - 4:18and yet it is illegal everywhere in the world.
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4:18 - 4:22In India and Nepal, I was introduced to the brick kilns.
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4:22 - 4:25This strange and awesome sight was like
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4:25 - 4:29walking into ancient Egypt or Dante's Inferno.
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4:29 - 4:33Enveloped in temperatures of 130 degrees,
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4:33 - 4:37men, women, children, entire families in fact,
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4:37 - 4:40were cloaked in a heavy blanket of dust,
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4:40 - 4:43while mechanically stacking bricks on their head,
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4:43 - 4:46up to 18 at a time, and carrying them
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4:46 - 4:51from the scorching kilns to trucks hundreds of yards away.
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4:51 - 4:55Deadened by monotony and exhaustion,
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4:55 - 5:00they work silently, doing this task over and over
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5:00 - 5:04for 16 or 17 hours a day.
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5:04 - 5:07There were no breaks for food, no water breaks,
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5:07 - 5:10and the severe dehydration made urinating
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5:10 - 5:13pretty much inconsequential.
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5:13 - 5:15So pervasive was the heat and the dust
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5:15 - 5:19that my camera became too hot to even touch
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5:19 - 5:21and ceased working.
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5:21 - 5:24Every 20 minutes, I'd have to run back to our cruiser
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5:24 - 5:27to clean out my gear and run it under an air conditioner
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5:27 - 5:31to revive it, and as I sat there,
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5:31 - 5:35I thought, my camera is getting far better treatment
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5:35 - 5:37than these people.
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5:37 - 5:40Back in the kilns, I wanted to cry,
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5:40 - 5:44but the abolitionist next to me quickly grabbed me
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5:44 - 5:48and he said, "Lisa, don't do that. Just don't do that here."
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5:48 - 5:52And he very clearly explained to me that emotional displays
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5:52 - 5:54are very dangerous in a place like this,
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5:54 - 5:58not just for me, but for them.
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5:58 - 6:02I couldn't offer them any direct help.
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6:02 - 6:05I couldn't give them money, nothing.
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6:05 - 6:06I wasn't a citizen of that country.
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6:06 - 6:09I could get them in a worse situation
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6:09 - 6:12than they were already in.
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6:12 - 6:14I'd have to rely on Free the Slaves to work
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6:14 - 6:17within the system for their liberation,
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6:17 - 6:21and I trusted that they would.
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6:21 - 6:24As for me, I'd have to wait until I got home
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6:24 - 6:28to really feel my heartbreak.
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6:28 - 6:31In the Himalayas, I found children carrying stone
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6:31 - 6:34for miles down mountainous terrain
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6:34 - 6:37to trucks waiting at roads below.
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6:37 - 6:39The big sheets of slate were heavier
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6:39 - 6:42than the children carrying them,
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6:42 - 6:44and the kids hoisted them from their heads
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6:44 - 6:48using these handmade harnesses of sticks and rope
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6:48 - 6:50and torn cloth.
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6:50 - 6:54It's difficult to witness something so overwhelming.
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6:54 - 6:57How can we affect something so insidious,
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6:57 - 7:00yet so pervasive?
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7:00 - 7:02Some don't even know they're enslaved,
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7:02 - 7:07people working 16, 17 hours a day without any pay,
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7:07 - 7:11because this has been the case all their lives.
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7:11 - 7:15They have nothing to compare it to.
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7:15 - 7:18When these villagers claimed their freedom,
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7:18 - 7:24the slaveholders burned down all of their houses.
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7:24 - 7:26I mean, these people had nothing,
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7:26 - 7:29and they were so petrified, they wanted to give up,
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7:29 - 7:33but the woman in the center rallied for them to persevere,
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7:33 - 7:35and abolitionists on the ground
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7:35 - 7:38helped them get a quarry lease of their own,
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7:38 - 7:41so that now they do the same back-breaking work,
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7:41 - 7:45but they do it for themselves, and they get paid for it,
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7:45 - 7:49and they do it in freedom.
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7:49 - 7:51Sex trafficking is what we often think of
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7:51 - 7:53when we hear the word slavery,
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7:53 - 7:55and because of this worldwide awareness,
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7:55 - 7:58I was warned that it would be difficult for me to work safely
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7:58 - 8:00within this particular industry.
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8:00 - 8:03In Kathmandu, I was escorted by women who had
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8:03 - 8:07previously been sex slaves themselves.
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8:07 - 8:09They ushered me down a narrow set of stairs
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8:09 - 8:15that led to this dirty, dimly fluorescent lit basement.
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8:15 - 8:17This wasn't a brothel, per se.
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8:17 - 8:19It was more like a restaurant.
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8:19 - 8:21Cabin restaurants, as they're known in the trade,
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8:21 - 8:24are venues for forced prostitution.
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8:24 - 8:27Each has small, private rooms, where the slaves,
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8:27 - 8:30women, along with young girls and boys,
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8:30 - 8:32some as young as seven years old,
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8:32 - 8:34are forced to entertain the clients,
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8:34 - 8:38encouraging them to buy more food and alcohol.
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8:38 - 8:41Each cubicle is dark and dingy,
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8:41 - 8:45identified with a painted number on the wall,
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8:45 - 8:49and partitioned by plywood and a curtain.
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8:49 - 8:53The workers here often endure tragic sexual abuse
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8:53 - 8:55at the hands of their customers.
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8:55 - 8:58Standing in the near darkness, I remember feeling
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8:58 - 9:02this quick, hot fear, and in that instant,
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9:02 - 9:05I could only imagine what it must be like
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9:05 - 9:07to be trapped in that hell.
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9:07 - 9:12I had only one way out: the stairs from where I'd come in.
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9:12 - 9:14There were no back doors.
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9:14 - 9:16There were no windows large enough to climb through.
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9:16 - 9:21These people have no escape at all,
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9:21 - 9:24and as we take in such a difficult subject,
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9:24 - 9:28it's important to note that slavery, including sex trafficking,
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9:28 - 9:31occurs in our own backyard as well.
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9:31 - 9:36Tens of hundreds of people are enslaved in agriculture,
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9:36 - 9:39in restaurants, in domestic servitude,
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9:39 - 9:41and the list can go on.
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9:41 - 9:44Recently, the New York Times reported that
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9:44 - 9:50between 100,000 and 300,000 American children
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9:50 - 9:54are sold into sex slavery every year.
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9:54 - 10:00It's all around us. We just don't see it.
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10:00 - 10:04The textile industry is another one we often think of
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10:04 - 10:06when we hear about slave labor.
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10:06 - 10:11I visited villages in India where entire families were enslaved
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10:11 - 10:13in the silk trade.
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10:13 - 10:16This is a family portrait.
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10:16 - 10:20The dyed black hands are the father, while the blue
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10:20 - 10:22and red hands are his sons.
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10:22 - 10:25They mix dye in these big barrels,
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10:25 - 10:29and they submerge the silk into the liquid up to their elbows,
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10:29 - 10:34but the dye is toxic.
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10:34 - 10:37My interpreter told me their stories.
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10:37 - 10:41"We have no freedom," they said.
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10:41 - 10:44"We hope still, though, that we could leave this house
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10:44 - 10:46someday and go someplace else
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10:46 - 10:52where we actually get paid for our dyeing."
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10:52 - 10:57It's estimated that more than 4,000 children
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10:57 - 10:59are enslaved on Lake Volta,
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10:59 - 11:04the largest man-made lake in the world.
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11:04 - 11:07When we first arrived, I went to have a quick look.
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11:07 - 11:10I saw what seemed to be a family fishing on a boat,
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11:10 - 11:14two older brothers, some younger kids, makes sense right?
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11:14 - 11:18Wrong. They were all enslaved.
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11:18 - 11:21Children are taken from their families
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11:21 - 11:23and trafficked and vanished,
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11:23 - 11:26and they're forced to work endless hours on these boats
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11:26 - 11:31on the lake, even though they do not know how to swim.
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11:31 - 11:33This young child is eight years old.
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11:33 - 11:36He was trembling when our boat approached,
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11:36 - 11:39frightened it would run over his tiny canoe.
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11:39 - 11:42He was petrified he would be knocked in the water.
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11:42 - 11:45The skeletal tree limbs submerged in Lake Volta
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11:45 - 11:49often catch the fishing nets, and weary,
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11:49 - 11:53frightened children are thrown into the water
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11:53 - 11:55to untether the lines.
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11:55 - 11:58Many of them drown.
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11:58 - 12:01For as long as he can recall, he's been forced to work
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12:01 - 12:03on the lake.
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12:03 - 12:07Terrified of his master, he will not run away,
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12:07 - 12:10and since he's been treated with cruelty all his life,
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12:10 - 12:13he passes that down to the younger slaves
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12:13 - 12:16that he manages.
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12:16 - 12:18I met these boys at five in the morning,
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12:18 - 12:20when they were hauling in the last of their nets,
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12:20 - 12:23but they had been working since 1 a.m.
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12:23 - 12:27in the cold, windy night.
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12:27 - 12:30And it's important to note that these nets weigh
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12:30 - 12:34more than a thousand pounds when they're full of fish.
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12:34 - 12:39I want to introduce you to Kofi.
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12:39 - 12:42Kofi was rescued from a fishing village.
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12:42 - 12:45I met him at a shelter where Free the Slaves
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12:45 - 12:49rehabilitates victims of slavery.
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12:49 - 12:51Here he's seen taking a bath at the well,
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12:51 - 12:54pouring big buckets of water over his head,
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12:54 - 12:56and the wonderful news is,
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12:56 - 12:58as you and I are sitting here talking today,
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12:58 - 13:01Kofi has been reunited with his family,
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13:01 - 13:04and what's even better, his family has been given tools
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13:04 - 13:10to make a living and to keep their children safe.
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13:10 - 13:14Kofi is the embodiment of possibility.
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13:14 - 13:19Who will he become because someone took a stand
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13:19 - 13:22and made a difference in his life?
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13:22 - 13:25Driving down a road in Ghana
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13:25 - 13:27with partners of Free the Slaves,
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13:27 - 13:30a fellow abolitionist on a moped suddenly sped up
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13:30 - 13:33to our cruiser and tapped on the window.
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13:33 - 13:37He told us to follow him down a dirt road into the jungle.
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13:37 - 13:40At the end of the road, he urged us out of the car,
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13:40 - 13:43and told the driver to quickly leave.
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13:43 - 13:46Then he pointed toward this barely visible footpath,
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13:46 - 13:50and said, "This is the path, this is the path. Go."
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13:50 - 13:54As we started down the path, we pushed aside the vines
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13:54 - 13:58blocking the way, and after about an hour of walking in,
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13:58 - 14:03found that the trail had become flooded by recent rains,
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14:03 - 14:05so I hoisted the photo gear above my head
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14:05 - 14:10as we descended into these waters up to my chest.
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14:10 - 14:13After another two hours of hiking, the winding trail
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14:13 - 14:18abruptly ended at a clearing, and before us
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14:18 - 14:20was a mass of holes
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14:20 - 14:23that could fit into the size of a football field,
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14:23 - 14:29and all of them were full of enslaved people laboring.
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14:29 - 14:32Many women had children strapped to their backs
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14:32 - 14:34while they were panning for gold,
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14:34 - 14:39wading in water poisoned by mercury.
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14:39 - 14:43Mercury is used in the extraction process.
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14:43 - 14:47These miners are enslaved in a mine shaft
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14:47 - 14:50in another part of Ghana.
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14:50 - 14:52When they came out of the shaft, they were soaking wet
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14:52 - 14:55from their own sweat.
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14:55 - 14:59I remember looking into their tired, bloodshot eyes,
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14:59 - 15:04for many of them had been underground for 72 hours.
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15:04 - 15:08The shafts are up to 300 feet deep, and they carry out
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15:08 - 15:12heavy bags of stone that later will be transported
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15:12 - 15:15to another area, where the stone will be pounded
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15:15 - 15:19so that they can extract the gold.
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15:19 - 15:23At first glance, the pounding site seems full
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15:23 - 15:28of powerful men, but when we look closer,
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15:28 - 15:32we see some less fortunate working on the fringes,
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15:32 - 15:35and children too.
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15:35 - 15:42All of them are victim to injury, illness and violence.
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15:42 - 15:46In fact, it's very likely that this muscular person
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15:46 - 15:50will end up like this one here, racked with tuberculosis
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15:50 - 15:55and mercury poisoning in just a few years.
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15:55 - 15:59This is Manuru. When his father died,
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15:59 - 16:03his uncle trafficked him to work with him in the mines.
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16:03 - 16:07When his uncle died, Manuru inherited his uncle's debt,
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16:07 - 16:12which further forced him into being enslaved in the mines.
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16:12 - 16:15When I met him, he had been working in the mines
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16:15 - 16:20for 14 years, and the leg injury that you see here
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16:20 - 16:22is actually from a mining accident,
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16:22 - 16:27one so severe doctors say his leg should be amputated.
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16:27 - 16:31On top of that, Manuru has tuberculosis,
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16:31 - 16:34yet he's still forced to work day in and day out
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16:34 - 16:36in that mine shaft.
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16:36 - 16:41Even still, he has a dream that he will become free
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16:41 - 16:44and become educated with the help of local activists
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16:44 - 16:47like Free the Slaves,
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16:47 - 16:49and it's this sort of determination,
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16:49 - 16:53in the face of unimaginable odds,
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16:53 - 17:00that fills me with complete awe.
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17:00 - 17:04I want to shine a light on slavery.
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17:04 - 17:06When I was working in the field,
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17:06 - 17:09I brought lots of candles with me,
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17:09 - 17:11and with the help of my interpreter,
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17:11 - 17:14I imparted to the people I was photographing
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17:14 - 17:17that I wanted to illuminate their stories
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17:17 - 17:19and their plight,
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17:19 - 17:22so when it was safe for them, and safe for me,
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17:22 - 17:26I made these images.
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17:26 - 17:28They knew their image would be seen
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17:28 - 17:30by you out in the world.
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17:30 - 17:34I wanted them to know that we will be bearing witness
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17:34 - 17:37to them, and that we will do whatever we can
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17:37 - 17:42to help make a difference in their lives.
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17:42 - 17:46I truly believe, if we can see one another
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17:46 - 17:50as fellow human beings, then it becomes very difficult
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17:50 - 17:55to tolerate atrocities like slavery.
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17:55 - 17:59These images are not of issues. They are of people,
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17:59 - 18:02real people, like you and me, all deserving
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18:02 - 18:06of the same rights, dignity and respect
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18:06 - 18:08in their lives.
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18:08 - 18:11There is not a day that goes by that I don't think
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18:11 - 18:16of these many beautiful, mistreated people
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18:16 - 18:21I've had the tremendous honor of meeting.
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18:21 - 18:25I hope that these images awaken a force
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18:25 - 18:28in those who view them, people like you,
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18:28 - 18:32and I hope that force will ignite a fire,
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18:32 - 18:37and that fire will shine a light on slavery,
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18:37 - 18:41for without that light, the beast of bondage
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18:41 - 18:44can continue to live in the shadows.
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18:44 - 18:47Thank you very much.
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18:47 - 19:00(Applause)
- Title:
- Photos that bear witness to modern slavery
- Speaker:
- Lisa Kristine
- Description:
-
For the past two years, photographer Lisa Kristine has traveled the world, documenting the unbearably harsh realities of modern-day slavery. She shares hauntingly beautiful images -- miners in the Congo, brick layers in Nepal -- illuminating the plight of the 27 million souls enslaved worldwide. (Filmed at TEDxMaui)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 19:21
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for Photos that bear witness to modern slavery |