Freedom (charity)

Freedom Charity

File:Freedom Charity logo.png
Founded	11 August 2009 (2009-08-11)
Founder	Aneeta Prem
Type	Educational and support charity
Registration no.	1139657
Focus	Victims of forced marriage and related violence
Location	London
Area served	United Kingdom
Product	Education, advice, helpline, book, smartphone app
Key people	Toby Harris, Vineeta Thornhill
Slogan	"saving lives"
Website	www.freedomcharity.org.uk

Freedom or Freedom Charity is a UK-based charity formed to give support to victims of forced marriage and violence upon women thought to have brought dishonour on the family. The organisation has also become involved in issues of domestic slavery. It was founded in 2009 by Aneeta Prem and the chair of trustees is Toby Harris.

Awareness and helpline for forced marriage

The charity provides educational material and teaching and training programmes for schools & front line professionals and runs a 24/7 helpline supported by trained professionals. It is thought there may be 8000 forced marriages each year in Britain and it is most prevalent in communities originating in south Asia.

The charity operates its own website and also uses social media websites. In conjunction with the UK government's Forced Marriage Unit and the Metropolitan Police, the charity provides a smartphone app which, to divert suspicion, ostensibly looks like a game but which gives information regarding forced marriage for victims and carers and allows helplines to be called and emergency help to be summoned. The organisation aims to give every teenager in Britain a copy of Prem's book But It's Not Fair, a book with governmental recommendation.

Freedom Charity was founded by Aneeta Prem, a magistrate, who was born in London. When working as a karate teacher in London, Prem encountered the problem of forced marriages when teaching martial arts to young women.

On 16 June 2014, The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (UK) made forcing someone into marriage a criminal offence. The charity marked the change in legislation by launching a hashtag campaign #freedom2choose and a video to help raise awareness of the change in legislation was produced. The video featured The Home Secretary, Theresa May; Aneeta Prem, founder of Freedom Charity; Sophie Lott from the government's Forced Marriage Unit; Commander Mak Chishty, National Police Lead on Forced Marriage; Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service for North West England, Edward Pleeth, a barrister; plus an anonymous victim of forced marriage,

Domestic slavery rescue

In October 2013, the organisation was contacted by three women in London saying they had been held as domestic slaves for thirty years. A television documentary on forced marriages, followed by an interview with Prem describing the work of Freedom Charity, had prompted one of the victims to call the helpline. Freedom contacted the Metropolitan Police who managed the women's rescue with the assistance of the charity which held secret telephone calls with the captives. Two suspects were arrested.