Picture this: a tech company deploying projects built and developed by survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence. It may seem like a long shot in a world where those individuals so often find themselves stuck in cycles of abuse and exploitation, but nonprofit tech incubator AnnieCannons has achieved a self-sustaining and scalable system of economic empowerment for survivors.
Breaking vicious cycles of human trafficking
Hidden in plain sight, the United States has a grave human trafficking problem. The fact that the problem remains unmeasured doesn’t help: In 2016, the U.S. Department of State estimated that 57,700 individuals were being trafficked into the country each year, an estimate that doesn’t account for those trafficked within the nation’s borders.