Take part in our Helpline Hero campaign to raise funds for the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline – and its essential round-the-clock service.
Unseen’s Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline is a lifeline for thousands of people trapped in slavery – and a vital source of support and information for the public and people fighting exploitation in the UK.
But to keep the Helpline running as a free 24/7 service, we rely on the generosity of people like you.
As the Helpline marks five years of fighting slavery, we’re asking you to take part in our Helpline Hero campaign to:
• Raise funds so we can continue our essential round-the-clock service
• Raise awareness of modern slavery so we can end this nightmare forever.
The clue is in the number. We’ve come up with challenges based on the Helpline’s number – 08000 121 700. Choose one or more to raise cash, raise awareness – or both.
And if you need help with anything, such as how to set up an event, get in touch with us at [email protected]
Step 1: Get friends, family and colleagues to sponsor you and then walk or run 8,000 steps or 8,000 metres. Or you could put on your bike helmet and travel 8,000 metres by bike or wheelchair.
You could score 8,000 basketball baskets (we recommend you don’t try doing this all at once).
Or you could invent a challenge of your own that you can do 8,000 times.
Have a one-to-one conversation with a friend or family member about modern slavery. On our website you can find out more about the issues, learn how to spot the signs of exploitation, and see some handy stats. Encourage friends and family to take part in the challenge too.
Sign up to the Unseen newsletter at the top of this page to get regular updates about the work we do and how you can continue to support us.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @unseenuk so you see the difference we are making together
Share the amazing chats or fundraising you’ve been doing using the hashtag #BeAHelplineHero
Raise £700 for our vital work. You could:
Hold a bake sale or coffee morning for your team
Take part in a clothes drive or car boot sale
Organise a social night out, like a pub quiz, that people pay to enter
Create a raffle to share with your friends, family and colleagues
Set yourself a £700 target for a sponsored challenge such as running a marathon or climbing a mountain.
Collecting your donations is easy.
Just set up a Just Giving page for your friends and family to pay in their contributions – or pay in lump sums easily yourself.
The Helpline is free, confidential, runs 24/7 and is available in more than 200 languages. Over the past five years our trained advisors have:
* May 2021 figure
** September 2021 figure
The Helpline is totally independent and relies on the generosity of people like you. Be a Helpline Hero and donate now to ensure we can continue to answer a call for help, any time of day or night.
• Registered charity number 1127620
• Unseen UK is a registered charitable company limited by guarantee in England and Wales
• Registered company number 06754171
© Copyright 2021 Unseen UK
As I came to understand more about the issue, including through a visit to an Unseen safehouse, I knew I needed to do more to stop this abuse and exploitation.
For the last five years of my Civil Service career, I was the Modern Slavery Senior Policy Advisor in the Home Office and led on development of the Modern Slavery Act, including the transparency in supply chains provision and business guidance.
I joined Unseen to lead the development of the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, and Unseen’s work with businesses. I am regularly called upon to present at national and international conferences and use my experience of working with Ministers to influence other governments internationally to take action to address modern slavery and, in particular, business supply chain issues.
In my spare time I enjoy keeping fit, music, reading and travelling.
What ultimately compelled me to act was a report on how people from Eastern Europe were being trafficked through Bristol airport to the USA. Kate Garbers, who went on to be an Unseen Director, and I wrote to all the city councillors, MPs and the Police Chief Constable challenging them on the issue. The challenge came back to us: this city needs safe housing for trafficked women. And so Unseen began.
But we never wanted Unseen to be just about safe housing. We wanted to end slavery once and for all, and that remains our driving focus.
I chaired the working group for the Centre for Social Justice’s landmark report “It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to Fight Modern Slavery”. This is now acknowledged as the catalyst behind the UK’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015. It was a great honour to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours that year. On the other hand, I’ve also been described as “the loveliest disrupter you could ever hope to meet”.
This job has taken me from building flat-pack furniture for safehouses, to working with businesses to address slavery in supply chains, to delivering training, raising awareness and advising governments around the world.
When not at work, I enjoy travelling, spending time with my dog Harley, cooking, supporting Liverpool and Yorkshire CC, music (I’m a former DJ) and endurance events such as the Three Peaks Challenge and Tribe Freedom Runs – which I vow never to do again. Until the next time.
