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Anti-Slavery International's
education programme promotes human rights in schools and youth clubs
throughout the United Kingdom.
The overall aim of our work is to help individuals understand the
role of human rights in today's world, as well as the underlying
attitudes which lead to the respect or violation of them. Our work
focuses particularly on examples of contemporary and historical
slavery and the international instruments used to protect human
rights.
On this page you will find:
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Breaking
the Silence: Learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was one of the ugliest chapters in world
history and has left an indelible mark on societies, cultures and
peoples
around the world. Anti-Slavery International's Breaking the Silence
website aims to help teachers and educators break the silence
surrounding the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Through a variety of resources,
ideas and perspectives, it shows how enslavement changed societies
worldwide and how its long lasting legacies are directly relevant
to people today.
http://www.antislavery.org/breakingthesilence/
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Recovered
Histories: a digitised collection of documents on the Transatlantic
Slave Trade
Proving an insight into the history of enslavement and those who fought
to maintain and abolish it, Anti-Slavery International has digitised
over 40,000 pages of 18th and 19th century literature on the Transatlantic
Slave Trade. Key narratives have been identified, enabling the reader
to easily navigate through the texts, with explanatory background
pages, activities, and a glossary for unfamiliar terminology.
http://www.recoveredhistories.org/
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Education resources for sale
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three resources).
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Activities
for the classroom
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Looking for ways to teach about slavery? Try
the following activity with your class: |
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Reporting on contemporary forms of slavery
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i) As a warm-up exercise and
to get students thinking about contemporary forms of slavery, ask
them how they would define contemporary or modern slavery? Write their
responses on the board and form a discussion around them. A fundamental
characteristic that should be discussed is 'freedom'. If this characteristic
has not been brought up by the students, guide them to it. Ask students
what it means to be free or what it means not to be free. Again,
put their responses on the board and encourage discussion.
ii) Divide everyone up into groups of three and have them read the
following case studies and then fill out the Information Guide below
for one case study:
Rita is Indian and arrived in the UK with her employer in May 2000.
She was forced to work from 6.30am to 11.30pm and was not allowed
time off apart from one hour each Sunday to attend church. Her employers
would pull the plug out of the phone if she tried to make any calls
and locked her in the house when they went out to prevent her from
leaving. Rita was forced to sleep on the floor in the kitchen and
her employers constantly verbally abused her. They also took her
passport and told her that if she left her job she would be deported
back to India.
João works on a big plantation in São Paulo State,
Brazil. He extracts a thick, brown resin from a tree, which is used
to make chewing gum and glue. He began working for his landlord
as a resin extractor when he was nine. He is in debt to the ranch
shop where he is forced to buy food. João says that he has
to work 14 hours a day for the rest of his life to pay it off. He
feels that there is no way out. His daughter, Ana Maria, has worked
most of her 14 years alongside her father. She only gets food for
her work and has never been to school.
Information guide
(You can download a text
version of this table).
Person in slavery:
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Other people involved:
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What kinds of emotions do you feel
after reading this person's story?
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What two questions would you ask
the main character if you were going to interview him or her
for a TV news interview?
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Q1.
Q2.
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Which other person would you interview?
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What two questions would you ask
this person if you were going to interview him or her for a
TV news interview?
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Q1.
Q2.
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iii) Have students prepare a news report based on the information
in their Information Guide. In each group, there should be a reporter
and two interviewees (including the main character). For example,
the interviewees for the second case study could be João
plus Ana Maria, his landlord or an overseer. The group then needs
to think of appropriate answers for the interviewees.
iv) After 15 minutes, have each group perform their news report
for the others. After each performance, give students a chance to
reflect, ask questions and discuss issues raised in the news story.
These performances can be used for an assembly to raise awareness
of contemporary forms of slavery. See below for more assembly
ideas.
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School
assembly ideas on slavery
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1. Assembly on the worst forms of child labour
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that around
179 million children work in the worst forms of child
labour*. A good way to raise awareness of this problem is through
a school assembly. Below is the background information and case
studies for three examples of the worst forms of child labour. Students
can use this information to create a short presentation on one of
the examples for an assembly. For more information on what you can
do, visit our campaigns page
General directions
For each topic, assign students a character from the case study
to play. For the presentation on child domestic workers, for example,
characters could include Patience, Mimi, Jiji and Mimi's parents.
You can also add new characters, such as Mimi's teacher, Patience's
parents, Mimi's baby sister or a social worker. There should also
be a narrator or narrators who are responsible for giving some background
information at the beginning, guiding the story along and, finally,
presenting a conclusion at the end.
(a) Child domestic work
Background information
Child domestic work is one of the most common forms of child labour.
It is also the most 'invisible'. Many domestic workers are as young
as seven or eight years old and are already working day and night.
Sometimes they are not allowed to leave the house, they are made
to sleep on the floor and given only the leftovers to eat. Child
domestic workers do a range of jobs around the house for the family
they live with -- cleaning and cooking, serving lunch and tea, and
helping to look after young children. Many employers feel they are
doing the child a favour, providing work for someone from a poor
family, even helping to make a situation better. But many also abuse
the children and treat them very differently from their own children.
Case study
Patience is 12 and lives in Togo, West Africa. Her employer's daughter
Mimi is the same age, yet their lives could not be more different.
Mimi goes to school, speaks fluent French as well as her own language
and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. While Mimi and her older
brother Jiji are at school, Patience is in the kitchen preparing
their lunch.
Patience serves them their lunch and watches them eat. Then she
eats her lunch on her own. She has worked in this house for two
years. She has lost all contact with her family and any chance of
a better life. She believes she deserves nothing more.
(b) Agricultural work
Background information
More children work in agriculture than in any other type of work,
but it is often not seen as a problem because children are working
with their families and learning new skills. But fieldwork is hard
and often dangerous for children. Whole families work on large estates
or plantations for very little or no money. Often children have
to spray poisonous chemicals to protect their employers' crops from
insects and disease. They don't wear protective clothing and this
severely affects their health. Children often don't go to school
because their parents cannot afford to send them or because the
nearest school is too far away. Many families live in crowded housing
with no access to medical care.
Case study
Fatima is a young jasmine picker in Egypt. She picks flowers at
night when the scent is at its strongest. The flowers are then sold
and made into expensive perfume.
(You can download a text version of this
table).
| Fatima: |
"We have to work, we have no choice but to
work. We have to help our parents out and to make ends meet.
It's hard, it's tiring, but our families are poor. We have to
bring some money home."
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Male overseer:
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"Enough talk." |
| Fatima: |
"We just have to accept the mistreatment."
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Male overseer:
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"Shut up and work." |
| Fatima: |
"This is the only way we can improve our
living standards, and help our parents pay for our studies so
we can get a better education." |
(c) Child soldiers
Background information
According to the United Nations, there are about 300,000 child soldiers
between the ages of five and 17 around the world. Not all child
soldiers are recruited to fight. Some of the other extremely dangerous
and life threatening jobs include mine detecting, acting as bodyguards,
and spying or carrying messages, ammunition or food. Children are
viewed as good soldier material because they are less likely than
adults to question orders and authority, their immaturity causes
them to take extreme risks, they are easier to control and they
make fearless fighters. However, the experience of being tortured,
humiliated or killing other human beings has a number of severe
consequences on the children involved in warfare. Some become suicidal;
others live with constant fear or anger towards anyone in the role
of authority such as parents, police, teachers or employers.
Case Study
Emilio was a child soldier in Guatemala, Central America. He was
recruited by the Guatemalan army at the age of 14: "The army
was a nightmare. We suffered greatly from the cruel treatment we
received. We were constantly beaten, mostly for no reason at all,
just to keep us in a state of terror. I still have a scar on my
lip and sharp pains in my stomach from being brutally kicked by
the older soldiers. The food was scarce and they made us walk with
heavy loads, much too heavy for our small and malnourished bodies.
They forced me to learn how to fight the enemy in a war and I didn't
understand why it was being fought."
If you would like more information on taking action against slavery,
please visit our campaigns page.
*The worst forms of child labour, as defined
in the ILO's Convention No. 182 (1999), includes (a) all forms of
slavery or similar practices, such as debt bondage, trafficking
and forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed
conflict; (b) the use of children for prostitution and pornography;
(c) the use of children for illicit activities, such as the production
and trafficking of drugs; and (d) all work which is likely to endanger
the health, safety or morals of children (Article 3).
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