When you tell yourself that there is nothing you can do to arrest the global slave trade, you underestimate your own potential and abandon hope for those trapped in captivity.
My greatest inspiration has to be a Thai lady called Kru Nam, 40, she is from an upper middle class family and degree educated who has chosen to dedicated her life to rescuing children. I met her just after she rescued 27 children, since then she has continued to rescue more children without money, influence and making connections.
Slavery takes so many forms, as it is interwoven within legal industries and is embedded into the supply chain.
Together we can make a difference and empower communities to be self sufficient.
The initial spark that promoted me to start Not For Sale was human trafficking in the San Francisco Bay Area. This led me to take a journey around the world on how this could exist in the 21st century.
I get my fuel and inspiration from children, they are our future.
I went to Thailand and built a village for 27 rescued children and this is where my passion to help prevent modern day slavery came from.
As an organisation [Not for Sale] we use social media on a daily basis as a way to share the impact of how our support is having on individuals and communities. By building awareness, education and updating interested parties on the progress of the projects.
The main challenge Not For Sale is big and it is modern day slavery, which is a $32billion dollar industry second to the illegal trade of drugs and arms.
My aim is to integrate business connections into vulnerable communities thus creating jobs.
Wherever I am in the world I want to be creating new projects and innovations, which are exciting and make a difference to communities.
The idea for Not For Sale originated as a simple brand to tell as many people as possible about what we are trying to achieve - "people are not for sale". The brand is a straight forward message and communicates the mission clearly.
For our international projects we developed an online skilled volunteer job board to help connect skilled individuals around the world who can help with the projects. This is the cost effective channel to achieve a wider reach, which you wouldn't have been possible without technology.
Technology is very important; it enables connection to one another, which is essential.
I am an entrepreneur and my goal is to create invention to the solution of human trafficking and extreme poverty.
I like to think that Not For Sale is the Juniper Networks of the social section, a disruptive innovator.
I want us to continue to scale and grow over the coming years in education, professional development and employment to bring about change in people's lives.
During 2007 "Not for Sale" was born from a problem I saw in Thailand. We established a basic level of care to the community there. Over the years our effective means of response has changed to help provide people with choices for the future.
I shall continue to invent new anti-slavery programmes around the world.
