The Mekong Club, a Hong Kong based nonprofit, works with the private sector to bring about sustainable practices against modern slavery across the globe.

10 November 2022, Hong Kong: The Mekong Club, a nonprofit organisation that works with the private sector to address modern slavery and related crimes, such as human trafficking and forced labour, has partnered with NMKR to launch Hong Kong’s first nonprofit-ran NFT fundraiser as part of its 10-year anniversary celebration.

The Mekong Club’s NFT fundraiser aims to raise global awareness on the issue of modern slavery through digital art. It will also reflect the Club’s vision of a slave-free world whereby businesses collectively redefine how to approach social sustainability.

Volunteer designers from different cultural backgrounds have come together in an information session hosted by The Mekong Club’s CEO, Matt Friedman. Matt has provided a creative brief on how modern slavery is impacting the world. Designers are asked to articulate through NFTs how they think the world would look if there was no slavery. The NFTs will be showcased and available for auction on 29 November for #CryptoGivingTuesday, a global crypto fundraising campaign for nonprofits.

Alongside the NFT awareness-building and fundraising efforts, The Mekong Club is also preparing for its annual Sweatshop Challenge, where corporate representatives get a taste of what it is like to experience a sweatshop situation. Participants are challenged to spend four consecutive hours engaging in a repetitive action – putting nuts on bolts and taking them off. They will do this without food, water, or a break. If they do not perform fast enough, the organisers will scold them. This activity aims to help participants get a glimpse of what slavery would feel like 365 days a year. Through this event, The Mekong Club aims to raise broader awareness among attendees and encourage them to share their experiences online with the hashtag #SweatshopChallenge.

Matt Friedman, CEO of The Mekong Club, said: “To celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we want to recognize all the hard work of nonprofits and the United Nations working in the anti-trafficking field. Unfortunately, among all the nonprofits globally working on this issue and the United Nations combined, less than a quarter of one percent of the profits generated from criminal activity are being used to combat modern slavery. We hope that through this year’s fundraising activities, we can create a global awareness of the issue so we can collectively put an end to modern slavery.”

Notes to editors:

Matt Friedman, CEO of The Mekong Club, is a global expert on modern slavery and human trafficking. As an award-winning filmmaker, author and philanthropist, Matt regularly advises heads of governments and intelligence agencies. Matt is considered the leading catalyst of the anti-slavery movement in Asia’s business sector by captains of industry.

Founded in 2012, The Mekong Club works closely with the private sector to bring sustainable practices against modern slavery across the globe. The Mekong Club’s business association members include small, medium, and multinational brands across multiple industries globally. The Club regularly convenes these companies to discuss key trends, challenges, and opportunities for collaboration. The Mekong Club works confidentially with companies to understand where their anti-slavery strategies stand in relation to industry standards, sharing best practice and practical recommendations. Furthermore, The Mekong Club develops innovative tools based on the real-world insights from their members, and resources to further industry-wide responses to modern slavery trends and challenges.

The Mekong Club has been awarded three international awards, the Stop Slavery Innovation Award, Asia Gold Award, and USAID’s Evidence2Action Award. These awards were granted to The Mekong Club’s development of AppriseAudit, an app that helps identify potential victims of forced labour and improve workers’ interviews during social compliance audits. The technology harnesses to end modern slavery through working with brands’ global supply chains and supporting the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Develop Goals.

About NMKR

NMKR is the world’s leading brand to create a suite a tools that help companies, artists, developers, and self-starters develop blockchain products. NMKR’s strong focus on accessibility, has created a mix of easy-to-use development APIs and no-code building blocks, which can be combined in a modular way and bundled them into their core product NMKR Studio.

NMKR Studio operates on the Cardano blockchain, allowing the transaction fees to be as low as possible while having almost no environmental impact due to the Proof of Stake approach. The additional NMKR Studio service aims directly toward brands and companies to create a white label API solution by developing a branded NFT marketplace, trading platform, or launching a customized collection. NMKR Studio has currently minted more than 1 Million NFTs.

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