The Six Degrees of Separation is a theory that claims every person in this world is only 6 or fewer steps away from another person. It means that only by means of a few introductions, each of us, all 7.125 Billion members of the planet Earth, are able to know each other through the network of our friend’s friends. Perhaps in the age of Social Media with all those familiar features like Facebook’s “Mutual Friends” or “Suggested Friends,” the theory makes a perfect sense. The Science of Six Degrees of Separation is a very short, fun video which describes the history of the theory and a bit about the science and practices behind it.
6 Degrees of Separation
But my purpose here is not to prove or disprove the 6 Degrees theory; my blog post is about initiatives that have used this theory in order to invite people to help survivors of human trafficking. 6Degree is an online platform initiated by The International Organization for Migration (IOM) which has been working since 1997 to help survivors of human trafficking around the world.
The survivors of human trafficking are able to submit their case to the 6Degree.org website explaining the funds they require for accommodation in a safe place, healthcare, legal assistance services, education, and other basic needs required services to overcome traumas and get back to their normal stable life. After that, IOM Case Officers determine a funding goal based on the survivor’s needs and, with the survivor’s permission, she make the case available to public on the website.
One of the goals of the program is to familiarize the donor to the survivor’s experience as much as possible. Personally I think that in a time that most charities, human rights and social justice organizations have implemented online-donations platforms on their websites, it is crucial to familiarize the potential funders with a compelling story of the donee. For example Watsi, an online charity platform to help patients for their medical treatments is one of the successful examples of the new forms of online charities. One of the key reasons for its success is that it familiarizes the donors with the patient via the patient’s photos and their detailed medical condition along with the required amount of money for the treatment. Although photo-sharing might have a profound influence on the website visitors (potential funders), there is a possibility that patients might not feel comfortable with using displaying photos and personal details in a public space. It is in this respect that 6Degree has been very cautious and smart about sharing the survivors’ identities and stories to website visitors.
Users can follow the story icon on icon on the map to understand each survivor’s story.
Instead of sharing the survivors’ photos, names, and other information which could potentially compromise their safety, 6Degree, with the help of Microsoft, created a crowdfunding portal that anonymously tells survivor’s stories with interactive maps built on top of Microsoft’s Bing Maps. It allows users to follow the journey of each former victims by clicking on different icons on the map and read the narratives of their experience.
“6Degree is the first time we have been able to provide individual donors with direct access to supporting a proven and time-tested mechanism for helping individual survivors of trafficking,” said Andrew Bruce, Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
The platform is very new and there is not much information about the rate of its success. However, I think 6Degree is a good example of a new form of online crowdfunding campaigns which are the result of INGO, private sectors and civil society cooperation in order to take steps in fighting against human trafficking. Each of us is linked by only six degrees of separation from victims of sex trafficking – when we keep in mind not only our essential humanity but also our interconnected nature, we can help our friends of friends.