Empowering Trafficking Survivors via Mobile Technology

Nomi will create an augmented reality app to prepare survivors of trafficking and those at risk to enter the economy. Our vocational training program has helped hundreds of women gain confidence, skills, and generate dignified income. Augmented reality will scale our proven approach to reach hundreds of thousands of women.

Human trafficking and forced labor enslaves 46 million people - with 18 million in India. Women in poor rural villages --"the last mile” --are highly vulnerable to exploitation because they lack marketable skills and access to dignified and sustained employment. Nomi’s training program is very effective in training women with very limited skills and education and placing them in jobs, but its high touch approach cannot penetrate the tremendous need.  Hundreds of NGOs around India are interested in our curriculum, but need technical support to implement.  Using augmented reality to teach specific technical modules is a scalable solution. 

Nomi has equipped hundreds of women in impoverished communities with skills and confidence to earn dignified income in fashion production, an entry point to the formal economy for women with little education. Nomi has relationships with major manufacturers and retailers, including Sephora, committed to investing in local economies and need skilled, productive workers for an ethical supply chain.  Using augmented reality, we can equip local NGOs train 100,000 women throughout India in five years, while we work with employers to build sustainable job pipelines. Augmented reality is used to train surgeons – we can certainly use it in fashion production. 

The augmented reality app will impact at least 100,000 women in five years, equipping them with technical and soft skills to secure jobs in fashion production.  Approximately 2 million nonprofits operate in India. We will recruit 500 to use the app and our curriculum to train approximately 200 women each year. Nomi will facilitate job placement with major manufacturers and hundreds of smaller factories around India that want to access our market relationships.  Having a job and earning income decreases women’s vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation. They can send their children to school, access health care, and transform their communities. 

Track number of partnership agreements signed, evaluate semi-annual progress reports for compliance - 500 organizations in India will use the augmented reality app and training curriculum

Track enrollment, completion rates, mean skills test scores per organization - A total of 100,000 women will complete the training program and pass the skills tests

Track number of job placements, microbusinesses started, and weekly wages using an online verification system - 100,000 women will be placed in jobs or start microbusinesses, earning at least 300% above baseline wages

Nomi has a robust fundraising arm that has raised approximately $4 million since our founding in 2009 to sustain and grow program operations and cover administrative costs.  From 2016 to 2017, we increased fundraising by 72%.  We have very strong legacy donors committed to reducing trafficking and slavery that invest in us because they’ve seen the effectiveness of our training approach and value of our employer relationships for sustainability.   We launched a leadership council to increase fundraising capacity that includes several heads of corporate and family foundations. Our goal is to raise $5.5 million in the next five years to reduce the prevalence of slavery through targeted vocational and workers’ rights training while establishing a pipeline of talent to factories and brands seeking ethical supply chains and US market access.  Once the augmented reality app is deployed, our NGO partners will assist in raising funds to scale this solution.

Limitations may include access and affordability of WiFi and smart phones or tablets at the local level. We will need to leverage the capacity of NGO partners that can provide these tools as part of their partnership agreements.  In parts of India, gender discrimination and cultural norms are a challenge to programs that seek to empower women.  We include legal rights training in our curriculum to increase women’s awareness of their rights and ways to protect themselves from violence and discrimination.  Availability of local jobs in extremely rural places may also be a limitation that requires innovative partnerships with employers.

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We seek help to develop the augmented reality app to deliver training modules.  Our curriculum is highly rated by the US Department of State and the Asian Development Bank.  We have piloted and refined the content, but need assistance to integrate augmented reality that can be easily accessed by women with limited literacy and education. It is very costly to deliver services to the last mile population, so women remain excluded from the economy and vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation.  We need expertise of MIT Solve team to help us leverage technology to scale our approach to reach millions. 

We have 20+funding partners that include private, family, and corporate foundations, faith-based funders, clubs and associations, as well as a strong individual donor base. We work with numerous partners involved in anti-trafficking initiatives around the world. We partner with several major brands and retailers to produce our ethically made products. 

TOMS, FEED Bags, Made by Survivors, and Malia Designs