The Impact of Your Donations  

The Abolition Institute is a Chicago, Illinois based 501 (c) (3) Non-Profit Organization inspired by Illinois’ 175 years of leadership in the fight against slavery.

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The Abolition Institute is fighting modern day slavery in the West African nation of Mauritania. An inhuman slavery system, similar in many ways to that which existed in the United States prior to the civil war, is widespread in Mauritania.

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The Walk Free Foundation’s most recent comprehensive Global Slavery Index estimates at least 149,000 Mauritanians are still enslaved. Mauritania did not criminalize slavery until 2007 and its weak laws are rarely enforced because its particularly brutal form of chattel slavery is still widely accepted and practiced by elite families.

Slaves in Mauritania – of all ages - are routinely beaten, raped and denied their fundamental human rights. Slavery in Mauritania is descent based; children are born enslaved and live their entire lives as the property of their masters. Slavery is also race based and  

accompanies a long history of discrimination against darker skinned people in Mauritania.

The Abolition Institute’s innovative work to honor Illinois’ legacy by fighting modern day slavery was profiled in the CNN story, “Abolition in the Land of Lincoln." Our annual event, the Aichana Abeid Boilil Awards, is held on Juneteenth and named after the first woman rescued from slavery by our Mauritanian partner organization, SOSEsclaves.

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The Abolition Institute is currently raising funds for a new vehicle to enable SOS Esclaves to reach enslaved people in particularly remote areas.