AFHR Travels to India to Free A Village

Artists for Human Rights partnered with Voices4Freedom to open a school in an enslaved village in India to help the disenfranchised people rise above the slavery they have been held in for generations.

In April, AFHR Founder Anne Archer and President Donna Isham traveled with Voices4Freedom outside of India’s holiest city, Varanasi, to see the village that AFHR is in the process of bringing to freedom. The 3 year program begins by opening a school for the enslaved village children. As the children learn to read and write, they and their parents are educated about their human rights. Simple. Miraculous. As these enslaved children and parents learn their rights while the children learn to read and write, the parents begin to understand and come together for maybe the first time as a self-determined community based on self-respect and shared human values. With knowledge comes power. They stand up for their legal rights, and the enslavers, like school-yard bullies, begin to back away looking over their shoulders for who else has found them out. Generations of slavery meets freedom forever.