James Aguer, Chair of the Dinka Committee in Sudan, was presented with the 2006 Anti-Slavery Award at a ceremony at London's Chatham House in November.

James was presented with the Award by the Earl of Sandwich, Anti-Slavery International trustee and member of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Sudan.

Gemma Wolfes interviewed James during his visit to find out what inspired his fight against slavery and about his hopes for the future.

Q: What led you to become involved with this issue and to form the Dinka Committee?
A: In February 1986, the Murahaleen (tribal militia) raided my village near Aweil in southern Sudan. They came in the dark while we were sleeping. They burned down our huts and shot many people. I managed to escape, but amid the chaos my 13-year-old sister, Awod, was abducted.

With the destruction of my village, I eventually made my way to Khartoum. Once there I met other Dinka who had suffered the same fate. I proposed we begin to gather information about those who had been abducted and, in 1989, I and five others decided to take on this task, so we formed the Dinka Committee. Looking for Awod was the first action I took. I heard from other Dinka based in southern Darfur that someone had seen her, so I travelled there to negotiate for her release. As I was a community leader, I was able to stay with the leader of that area. I finally convinced him to contact the slave master and ask for Awod to be released.

Eventually, he brought my sister and she was freed. In all, she was kept as a slave for four years during which time she was repeatedly raped. She was forced to do all the domestic work, herd cattle and search for water and firewood - she had to do everything. Every day she felt exhausted, alone and miserable.

Our reunion was very emotional, as I thought I would never see her again. After that I knew it was possible to free other slaves.

Q: What were the initial difficulties you faced in carrying out your work and have conditions improved?
A: When we first began collecting information about those who had been abducted, it was extremely dangerous. The Sudanese Government denied all knowledge of slavery to the point that we could not even talk about the abductions, we could only mention 'the missing people'. Those who were seen to be 'interfering' were targeted and between 1991 and 1992, three members of the Dinka Committee were murdered while attempting to identify slaves in southern Darfur. I myself have been arrested over 30 times and imprisoned on many occasions.

It took 10 years for the Sudanese Government to accept that abduction was a problem and, in 1999, it formed the Committee for the Eradication of Abductions of Women and Children (CEAWC) following pressure from the Dinka Committee and international organisations, including Anti-Slavery International. The Government moved from blocking our work to helping to facilitate it. While the Dinka Committee continues to gather information, negotiate releases and reunify families, CEAWC provides protection and facilitates the movement of Dinka Committee members around the country.

Q: What happens to slaves once they are freed?
A: Once they are freed, we take them to one of our reception centres in Khartoum, Kordofan or Darfur. We then begin the process of locating their families in order to reunite them. However, sometimes it can be difficult as the families have either been displaced or killed. In these cases we transport them back to the south of Sudan to one of the seven camps the Dinka Committee runs. Once in the south, it is often easier to search for their families, relatives or find a host family from the same ethnic background.

Q: What problems do former slaves face once they are freed?
A: In the majority of cases, former slaves were abducted when they were children. As a result, many have forgotten their own language and have been stripped of their cultural identity. This results in difficulties in reintegrating them with their families and the Dinka community. In response to this, we have set up schools at our reception centres where we teach the Dinka language before they return to their families.

Q: What challenges does the future hold?
A: Despite our releasing nearly 4,500 slaves since 1989, thousands of people remain in slavery and the release process is proving extremely slow. I look at Awod, who is now living a free and happy life with her husband and four children, and I hope that the Dinka Committee can bring the same happiness to those who continue to suffer.

Although the situation is now less dangerous than before, our main difficulty is the lack of funding. This is forcing us to cut back on our work and increasingly we have to limit it to gathering information, rather than focusing on releasing people from slavery.

Q: What difference will winning the Award make?
A: It will enable us to inform more people about the fact that slavery continues in Sudan and of the challenges people who have been freed face in returning to their communities. Already it has given me the opportunity to talk to a wider community about the issue. I hope that it will help put pressure on the Sudanese Government to have people released and help us gain more funding for our work.

Anti-Slavery International's Advocacy Officer, Bhavna Sharma, recently visited Andhra Pradesh in India to investigate the practice of Jogini and to meet the women affected by this traditional form of slavery.

Despite having been outlawed since 1988, some 16,000 women and girls in Andhra Pradesh continue to be affected by the practice of Jogini.

As a result, they are dedicated to a goddess and become the sexual property of her devotees.

Girls are dedicated for a number of reasons. Often it is done when a girl is ill or has a physical symptom or characteristic considered indicative of a goddess's displeasure. She is dedicated either to give thanks for her survival or in order to gain a goddess's favour and protection. Or she is dedicated because of the lack of male offspring.

The Jogin's formal dedication, or 'wedding', usually takes place after puberty. Often this results in her being given as a 'second wife' to a male relative on a semi-permanent basis. In other cases she becomes common sexual property and is obliged to have sex with any man in the community who wants her. Because the girl has no choice in becoming a Jogin and may not refuse a man's advances, she is a slave.

Jogini are the most marginalised and dispossessed group in their communities; I was particularly struck by how impoverished and ill they were. They are discriminated against because they are poor and come from the lowest castes. As a result, they have to live in a segregated part of the village, cut off from the rest of the community. They suffer poor health and face a high risk of catching sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS.

In contrast to the number of men they sleep with, they have few children as miscarriages and infant mortality are high. The children who do survive face discrimination, the greatest being that they are unable to register for school as they cannot provide a father's name; no man will admit to fathering a Jogini's child. There is also a high risk that Joginis' daughters will be made Joginis as well.

As part of our efforts to understand the current nature of this ancient practice and to help empower Joginis, we held a three-day workshop with our local partner Sravanti. The women told of how they were discriminated against, as could be seen from their work as daily agricultural labourers. Because of their status, they only received 20 rupees (47 US cents) a day, half of what other labourers earned. The amount is not even enough to provide two meals a day, let alone live on.

By the end of the workshop, the women were actively engaging in discussions on how they could take steps to ensure an end to the practice and how to protect their daughters from being made Jogini. They made plans to perform the plays and songs which they had learned in order to educate people about the harsh realities of ritual slavery and pledged to stop initiation ceremonies from taking place.

With help from Sravanti, they drew up a list of local authorities, including village councillors and policemen, whom they would meet to talk about what being a Jogini really involved.

For the closing ceremony the women performed a play about their lives and their daughters performed some traditional songs and dances. It was a moving experience because the women had opened up and shared their lives with us, demonstrating great dignity and strength.

Despite the hardship they face, the women felt empowered and were looking to a future where, through their involvement and activism, the practice of ritual sexual slavery would be eradicated.