Eugenie launches podcast to raise awareness of modern slavery
Written by First Choice Radio on 27 April 2022
Princess Eugenie has launched a weekly podcast for her charity The Anti-Slavery Collective, calling on people to become “mini-abolitionists” to stamp out modern slavery.
The Queen’s granddaughter and the daughter of the Duke of York presented Floodlight with best friend Julia de Boinville, the organisation’s co-founder, in a bid raise awareness about slavery and human trafficking.
The princess, who set up her charity in 2017, said of their goals in the first episode on Wednesday: “I think also just allowing people to know that they can be mini-abolitionists.
“You can look at what you’re doing in your life and try and pay it forward and help that person that you think might be in trouble or not, or just make good decisions.
“I think, the Collective, we always inspire each other to do the same.
“Once we understand how slavery connects to our lives, we start realising that it’s actually the clothes we wear. It’s in the food we eat. It’s in the items we buy and the services we purchase.”
Ms de Boinville said: “It’s such an important message. No matter who you are, everyone can do their part and everyone can make a change and hopefully that’s what this podcast series will inspire people to do.”
The pair highlighted the modern slavery footprint website, which shows how lifestyle choices are connected to slavery.
They talked about first encountering modern slavery on a visit to India in 2012, which inspired them to begin investigating the issue and led them to meet charities and be taken to a safe house in the UK to hear about victims’ experiences.
“We learnt the fact that there is someone being trafficked from within a mile of where you live,” Eugenie said.
The royal family has faced calls for apologies and repeated demands for reparations over historic slavery from campaigners in the Caribbean in recent months.
A group of around 10 demonstrators displayed banners such as “repatriation with reparations” and “Queen say sorry” in Saint Lucia during the Earl and Countess of Wessex’s tour on Wednesday.
Successive monarchs supported or made money from the transportation and selling of people for profit during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Eugenie and Ms de Boinville interviewed criminal barrister Caroline Haughey QC, who helped draft the Modern Slavery Act and is a trustee of the Collective, discussing sex trafficking.
Ms Haughey outlined a distressing case in which a young woman was trafficked when she was 18, exploited for sex in a brothel, locked in a room for six months and repeatedly raped.
The princess’s father Andrew stepped down from public duties in 2019 over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Andrew paid millions out of court to Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual assault, which he denied, when she was 17 and had been trafficked by Epstein.
Eugenie is not the only royal podcaster.
The Duchess of Sussex is launching her first one for Spotify this summer called Archetypes which explores female stereotypes.
Published: by Radio NewsHub
