Thirty years ago, Matt Friedman, CEO and founder of The Mekong Club, worked as a senior USAID public health official across Asia, focused on education and prevention of HIV/AIDS in small rural communities.

As part of Matt’s work, he visited many shelters where he repeatedly heard the same themes of horror. His first interview was with a fifteen-year-old girl telling him she was sexually abused over seven thousand times. She did this for two years until she was forced to leave because she suffered from various diseases that turned customers away.

Matt soon realised that, just as this young girl had been exploited for sex, millions more were being exploited across the world. This exploitation was happening in the sex industry but also permeates global supply chains, from factories to farms to fishing boats.

Matt began to work in the United Nations in the anti-trafficking world, where he worked closely with the public and private sectors across Asia. During his tenure, he noticed a gap in engagement with the private sector in their anti-trafficking efforts. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they feared being named or shamed for approaching a UN official to ask for help.

As a result, Matt left the United Nations and started The Mekong Club in Asia’s financial centre, Hong Kong, to provide a safe space for companies worldwide to work together to help identify and eliminate forced labour in the private sector.

Learn more about Matt and the Mekong Club here:

www.themekongclub.org

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