Human Thread Foundation

At Davos in 2025, senior HPE executive John Schultz said it plainly: there are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history. And we are losing the war.

Initiatives like the Global Data Partnership Against Forced Labour are trying to change that by pooling intelligence across thousands of supply chain data points to detect forced labour risks that no single organisation could see alone. It's important, necessary work.

But data has a limit. It can map the scale of exploitation. It cannot show you the exhaustion in a child's face after a shift in a brick kiln in Nepal. It cannot convey what it means to work in mercury-infested water in an illegal gold mine in Ghana. It cannot make a legislator feel the weight of what is actually happening at the bottom of a supply chain.

That's what Lisa's photography does. And it's why the Human Thread Foundation exists, not to raise awareness, but to bring human evidence to the moments when it can change something. To make visible what supply chains are designed to keep hidden.

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, has traveled the world documenting modern slavery as it unfolds in plain sight. Through her work, she has promised to shine a light on the suffering millions of people endure, wherever that suffering may be hidden.

In a city far from his home village, tucked behind construction sites and guarded factory gates, lives a young boy named Samir. He is only five years old, but his world is confined to a crowded labor camp where his parents work from sunrise to nightfall. They are migrant workers—part of the invisible engine building the cities others call home.

Samir shares a single, windowless room with his parents and two other families. There are no toys, no schoolbooks, no space to run. Just beds pressed against walls, cooking pots tucked beneath them, and a thin curtain offering the illusion of privacy.

His parents leave before he wakes and return long after dark. Their work is dangerous, poorly paid, and bound by promises that disappeared when they arrived. Housing, fair wages, and a better future were offered. Debt, fear, and silence took their place.

Samir spends his days wandering the camp with other children—unattended, unnoticed, and unprotected. He plays near heavy equipment and uncovered drains. He knows the sound of hammers better than a teacher’s voice and cement dust better than crayons or books. He has never been to school.

In quiet moments, he curls into his mother’s arms and asks questions she cannot answer: “When will we go home?” “Why can’t I come with you?” “Will I work too, when I’m big?”

Samir’s story is not unusual. Around the world, migrant families live and work in conditions that threaten their safety, dignity, and future. Children like Samir are growing up in the shadows—unregistered, uneducated, and unseen.

By sharing his story, we shine a light on the hidden lives of migrant workers and their children. Behind every building, road, and garment are human hands—and sometimes, very small ones.

* Samir is a fictional character created for awareness-raising purposes.

From a distance, it looked like a mountain rising through the brown haze of northern India. It was a landfill — and at the summit, children were working.

In her latest essay for CNN, Lisa Kristine writes about climbing to the top of one of India's massive dump sites at dawn, where she found children as young as five scavenging alongside their families — barefoot, unprotected, hauling loads more than half their size through toxic waste.

Their labor disappears under the label of "family work." No age checks. No interventions. Child labor is illegal in India. And yet.

One man told Lisa he was proud — proud to feed his family, proud to contribute. "While he carries pride," she writes, "the global community that benefits from his labor has largely chosen not to see him, nor the children working beside him."

Full essay linked below. 📷 All images by Lisa Kristine, made possible by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation in partnership with Human Thread Foundation .

Shine a light 🕯️

Our founder, Lisa Kristine, has traveled far and wide to document modern slavery unfolding before our eyes. She promised to shine a light on the suffering millions of people endure wherever she went.

Meet Bilhana*. Her story unfolds in the vibrant streets of Kathmandu, a tale of love turned betrayal. Deceived by someone she trusted, Bilhana found herself ensnared in the sinister world of forced prostitution.

The dimly lit basement, posing as a restaurant, became her new reality. Numbered cubicles, shrouded in darkness, housed stories of shattered innocence. Verbal and physical abuse became her daily torment as she was forced to entertain clients, the promise of love replaced by a nightmare.

Trapped in this exploitative underworld, Bilhana longed for escape. The narrow stairs leading back to the world she once knew seemed a distant hope. No back doors, no windows for freedom – she, like many others, was ensnared with no means of breaking free.

Bilhana's story reflects the heartbreaking reality of forced prostitution, a brutal form of modern slavery. It's a stark reminder that this pervasive issue exists not only in distant lands but within the boundaries of our communities.

Visit our website to learn more and join the fight to end this heinous crime. Together, let's raise awareness and break the chains that bind individuals like Bilhana.

* Bilhana is a fictional character created for awareness-raising purposes.