The Abolish Foundation (TAF) supports disenfranchised, vulnerable individuals and their communities affected by modern slavery and labour exploitation.
The Abolish Foundation
We’re a group of volunteers who work with local NGOs that provide rehabilitation support, vocational training, and education funding to young people affected by labour exploitation and modern slavery.
We met Ajay while making a documentary film called The Price of Cheap about forced labour in the supply chains of the fashion industry.
Ajay lost an arm in an accident at the age of 14 while working in an unsafe cotton-ginning mill. The factory which had illegally employed Ajay refused to cover his costs or even acknowledge that Ajay ever worked there.
He told us that his dream was to one day have a prosthetic arm. We promised Ajay that we would help, even if we knew very little about prosthetics. We teamed up with Center for Labour Research and Action (CLRA) and Dr. Mukul, and found some generous donors to fund Ajay's myoelectric arm. Ajay's increased mobility and renewed confidence encouraged him to open a shop in his village! He is happy to be able to contribute positively to his community and to be the main breadwinner for his family.
Image of Anil and Ajay, two prosthetics recipients through the generous supporters of TAF.
Watch a 2-minute video of Ajay's incredible story below.
We have been following Ajay’s story since 2017 when we first met him while researching and filming labour exploitation in Rajisthan, India.
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The Healing Project
The Healing Project provides assistance to individuals from extremely underprivileged backgrounds in India who have lost limbs in accidents. We are working with Dr. Pooja Mukul at the Jaipur Foot Rehabilitation Center and Sudhir Katiyar at the Center for Labour Research and Action (CLRA) to help nine young men receive prosthetics and rehabilitation support. There is a grave need for prosthetics among many other people in India, whose lives could be transformed like Ajay's with relatively modest financial support.
The Price of Cheap
In India, many underprivileged youth work to help provide support for their families. Some of them work in factories in unsafe conditions and are paid very low wages without benefits. They are often prevented from leaving with threats of violence against them and their families.
We made the film The Price of Cheap to share the stories of these workers hidden deep in the supply chains of the fashion industry. We hope that our film can inspire consumers to be more conscientious about their consumer choices. We also want to engage stakeholders in the fashion industry on taking action to reduce abuse in their supply chains.
Vocational training for young women
During our time filming in India, we also met and interviewed Karuppusamy, the executive director of The Rights Education & Development Centre (READ). He helped us better understand the challenges faced by young women there who are lured to work for years in textile factories, under the threat of violence.
READ's programs create new opportunities for young women rescued from forced labour, providing them with vocational training, such as sewing and computer training. These new skills allow these young women to earn a better income and be less vulnerable to labour exploitation schemes in textile factories.
We've committed to support READ's vocational training program, and the funding we're seeking could help up to 25 young women rebuild their lives.
We’re a call to action
