sex trafficking

The Empowerment Bag: A Bag to End Human Trafficking, with Vaishali Umrikar

The Empowerment Bag is an eco-friendly brand of bags, that employs women at risk of sex trafficking. Vaishali Umrikar is a passionate social entrepreneur who is committed to fighting human trafficking. While she was in high school, she read the book, The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade by Victor Malarek. This book awakened her to the realities of modern-day human trafficking. She became involved in anti-trafficking advocacy groups throughout high school and college. Since then, Vaishali has worked with the Australian Government Office for Women, Chicago Probation Sex Offender Unit, and Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. After graduating from college and beginning her corporate career, Vaishali realized her…

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A Company Powered by Purpose, with Krista Carroll, Latitude

Latitude is a for-profit creative agency, powered by purpose. In November 2009, Krista and her husband were in their 30s and, as she told me, “chasing the American dream really hard.” They were being financially successful but lacked a level of meaning and purpose. It was during a trip to Haiti that they witnessed extreme poverty for the first time. In response to this life-changing experience, they decided to form a social enterprise. In order to avoid debt, Krista, her husband, and two small children moved into her parents’ basement. Their company, Latitude is a for-profit, full-service creative agency. They do amazingly great work in brand design and experience design. What…

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Leveraging the Strength of a Corporation, with Stefan Phang, Soap for Hope

Soap for Hope teaches at-risk communities to salvage hotel soap slivers and turn them into new soap bars. When you visit a hotel, do you ever wonder what happens to the small piece of soap you leave behind? The average hotel generates somewhere from three to six tons of solid soap waste per year. What if that soap could be diverted from the landfill and used to lift people out of extreme poverty and prevent sex trafficking? Well, that’s what Stefan Phang of Diversey’s Soap for Hope program is doing. Soap for Hope was piloted in Cambodia in October 2013. By September 2015, they have partnered with 300 hotel properties in…

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