Our Story
EUGENIE AND JULES ARE BEST FRIENDS AND ABOLITIONISTS
We met on the bus on our way to a school trip and knew at once that this was just the beginning of a life-long friendship and adventure!
After following each other around the world, then to Newcastle University, and into our careers. In 2012, we went on a trip to Kolkata, India. Here, we visited an organisation called Women’s Interlink Foundation and first became aware of modern slavery. Aloka Mitra , the founder of Women’s Interlink, rescues girls from modern slavery, gives them a home and teaches them a simple vocational skill – fabric printing.
We were shocked to discover the extent to which slavery still exists. In fact, there are more enslaved people today than at any other point in history and, at any one time, someone is being trafficked within a mile of where you live. We often associate slavery with chains and shackles, but modern slavery is a hidden crime that is often hard to detect.
We spent the next 5 years educating ourselves. We became obsessive investigators and would visit anyone who could help us expand our knowledge; from policy makers, law enforcement agencies and academics, to NGOs, social workers and survivors. We asked everyone we encountered, ‘what can two young girls like us do to help?’ Without fail, the answer was always raise awareness. So this became our mission.
In 2017, we proudly launched The Anti-Slavery Collective.
HRH Princess Eugenie
CO-FOUNDER
HRH Princess Eugenie has been working against modern slavery since 2012. She helped set up Key to Freedom, a social enterprise initiative that supports and facilitates a route to market for products made by the survivors of trafficking at the Women’s Interlink Foundation.
Princess Eugenie has worked across the board with leaders in the fight against modern slavery: she has visited survivors with the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and the Salvation Army; she has spoken with world leaders at Nexus Global Summit and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Alliance; she has worked with the McCain Institute, has hosted a roundtable for the US Ambassador-at-Large for Combating Trafficking in Persons and she is a Patron of Anti-Slavery International.
Currently, Princess Eugenie works for Hauser & Wirth as a Director. She supports various charitable organisations such as Tate Modern and The Serpentine and holds various Ambassador and Patron roles at charities including Blue Marine Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust, the European School of Osteopathy, and the Elephant Family.
Julia de Boinville
CO-FOUNDER
Julia has been working in this field since her visit to Women’s Interlink Foundation in 2012. Once exposed to the shocking and hard truths of human trafficking, she made it her mission to investigate further.
Julia has since worked with organisations such as the McCain Institute, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, and the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. She has spent time with victims, charities, law enforcement agencies, policy makers and business leaders to help identify where she could make a difference and take action to fight this organised crime.
Julia also works for San Francisco based AI company, Scale AI, as their Head of UK. Scale AI helps large enterprises and government organisations unlock value from their data. She previously worked at Afiniti, a world leading applied artificial intelligence and advanced analytics provider. She has also completed a PGDip at Saïd Business school at The University of Oxford. She wrote her thesis on how large businesses take on more responsibility in combatting societal issues such as modern slavery.
With Support From
Ross Warren
ADVISOR
Ross joined Google in 2010 and shortly after partnered with the Google Ideas team on the Summit Against Violent Extremism, sparking his interest in tech-led social good movements. He is focused on leveraging technology and social media to combat modern slavery and human trafficking.
Caroline Haughey OBE, QC
TRUSTEE
Caroline is considered one of the leading lawyers in Modern Slavery and trafficking in the UK. Having prosecuted the first modern slavery case in the UK she was subsequently involved in advising the all parliamentary group on a proposed Modern Slavery Act, gave evidence before the committee and was involved in drafting what is the Modern Slavery Act 2015. She has subsequently prosecuted multiple cases under the new Act including the largest labour exploitation case in Europe (Op Fort). She sits on the Prime Minister’s Modern Slavery Task Force, is author of Modern Slavery Act Review 2016 and is joint legal expert on the second Modern Slavery Act Review. She advises both domestically and internationally on the drafting, implementation and application of anti trafficking and modern slavery legislation.