CNN’s #MyFreedomDay – a one-day, student-driven social media event to raise awareness of modern-day slavery – returns on March 14.
Driving this year’s #MyFreedomDay is one simple question: ‘What makes you feel free?’. CNN is asking young people to share their responses via text, photo or video across social media using the #MyFreedomDay hashtag.
Last year’s call to action saw students from more than 100 countries take part, and the #MyFreedomDay hashtag was used far and wide with 1.4 billion global Twitter impressions and 20 million Instagram timelines reached.
This year looks to be even bigger with CNN correspondents reporting from schools all over the world including Poland, Kenya, South Korea, Lebanon, the UK, the US and Hong Kong. Special coverage kicks off at 12:30pm ET on March 13 with a half-hour special hosted by Zain Asher, and continues on through March 14 with a special #MyFreedomDay edition of CNN Talk at 7:00am ET and live reports from participating schools throughout the day.
CNN will also showcase what these students, schools and communities are doing to fight slavery on Facebook, Instagram, at @CNNFreedom on Twitter and at CNN.com/myfreedom.
Leading up to #MyFreedomDay, CNN will air a new documentary film highlighting the plight of 20,000 children working as slaves on the fishing boats of Lake Volta, Ghana. Sold by their parents for $250 – or in some cases exchanged for livestock – these children are forced to work from dawn to dusk untangling fishing nets in the murky waters of one of the world’s largest man-made lake.
Premiering March 1 at 2:00pm ET, ‘Troubled Waters: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary’ both exposes this terrible practice and spotlights the aid workers and government officials working to rescue the children. The film is the first in a series of documentaries to be co-produced with the Kulczyk Foundation, and replays on Sunday, March 3 at 6:00am and 9:30pm ET and Tuesday, March 5 at 12:30pm ET.
#MyFreedomDay 2019 sizzle reel: https://cnn.it/2S3t7kQ
The CNN Freedom Project microsite: https://cnn.it/2oYYfpx
About The CNN Freedom Project
The CNN Freedom Project produces original reports, articles and documentaries on human trafficking in all of its forms – from debt bondage in India to sex trafficking rings in Southern California and African slaves in the Sinai desert. Since its launch in 2011, the multi-award winning CNN Freedom Project is among the most successful and highly visible programming initiatives on CNN International. It has generated more than 500 investigative stories of modern-day slavery from across five continents. Various NGOs report that these CNN Freedom Project stories have contributed to changing laws and corporate policies, led to more than 1,000 survivors receiving assistance and sparked more than $24 million in donations to anti-trafficking organizations.