Jessica Hendricks hard at work on The Brave Collection!

Dear friends of The Brave Collection,

In my middle school social studies class, we learned about the southern slave plantations. We learned that kidnapped families in Africa were used as forced labor and deemed only three fifths human. I remember feeling horrified — how shameful that less than two hundred years ago, our ancestors were enslaving each other. How cruel and barbaric!

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

Slavery exists today. From Malaysia to Mexico, in Paris, France and Westchester, New York, human beings are being kept as slaves. Innocent people are being tricked, coerced and sold by desperate family members, trafficked across foreign borders, and forced into labor.

“…human trafficking has now become one of the fastest growing and most lucrative criminal enterprises in the world…”
The US State Department.

While this crime takes on many forms, the most unjust and deeply monstrous example I have seen lies in the sexual slavery of young Cambodian girls. Girls as young as four years old are being sold to brothels, savagely beaten, and forced to service up to 30 clients a day.

The horrific reality for too many girls is a state of emergency that demands intervention. Unlike an incurable disease, this crisis is manmade, and we have the capacity to stop it.

“The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity.”
Nicholas D. Kristof, Half the Sky.

The Brave Collection was created to raise awareness and funds to fight this unacceptable practice by establishing a platform where a global community can become educated and empowered as a team. We are committed to supporting survivors and fair-trade artisans in developing countries by creating social entrepreneurship opportunities that give women a chance to do honest work that they can be proud of.

This is not a story of pity, it is a story of heroism and liberation.

Join us in the fight.

Because united I know that we can truly make a drastic difference in the lives of women and girls across the sea, and in our own backyard.

My sincerest thanks for your support,

Jessica Hendricks
Founder, The Brave Collection