Many of us are wage slaves in Bermuda, simply living from paycheque to paycheque. But we have the prospect of changing our fate. Imagine being in a developing nation and being sold for a mere $50, then held against your will to perform duties that have nothing beneficial attached.

The above only lightly touches on many of the instances of modern-day slavery that Stop The Traffik highlights.

Stop The Traffik charity helps at least 12 million men, women and children in numerous countries across the world who are trapped in various forms of modern-day slavery such as human trafficking, child labour and bonded labour.

Charlotte Wilberforce, who is the great, great, great granddaughter of British abolitionist William Wilberforce, hopes to raise awareness of the plight of slaves and aims to put pressure on global leaders to end the modern-day atrocity of slavery.

Locally she is working with Stop The Traffik president Dawn Zuill , Chewstick CEO Gavin Wilson and numerous others.

Miss Wilberforce spoke to The Royal Gazette about the Run For Freedom event in Bermuda and the simultaneous event, which is set to take place at Old Street, in London.

"We did it in London last year, and I came to work for Bermuda Executive Services and told Dawn about it and how I thought to do it in Bermuda and she jumped straight on board with it," explained Miss Wilberforce.

"She has been supporting it and through that she started getting together the committee members which is a range of Bermudians from different walks of life. We brought them together to talk about how we are going to get it started and about the charity itself in which Dawn is the president and Becky Zuill is vice president.

"None of this would have happened without Dawn and Bermuda Executive Services (BES) and the interest that she has inspired in a lot of people."

From there, the charity was approached by Butterfield & Vallis and the Chamber of Commerce, explained Miss Wilberforce.

"They decided to provide 300 T-shirts and goody bags, BES paid for the bouncy castles and a huge chunk of money towards the posters and all of that," she added.

Of Chewstick's involvement, she said: "I think Chewstick is the best thing about Bermuda, the local talent here is phenomenal.

"I had spoken to him (Gavin Smith) about the Run For Freedom and he started doing a bit of research himself.

"Then we were talking about the event after the run and why don't we do something really worthwhile, Chewstick style.

"Gavin has worked really hard on this."

The event begins at 1 p.m. at Barrs Bay Park and it takes about 20 minutes to walk the route.

"You go down to the Longtails (on Front Street) and then back up to Barrs Bay Park, we will also have lots of volunteers on hand, a guest speaker and the Gombeys for very good energy," added Miss Wilberforce.

"Greenrock (environmental awareness charity) will also be on hand to give out some information, because it is important how we look after our world."

People often wonder how they can help, she added.

"When we speak about people trafficking and it doesn't seem very relevant to Bermuda, but coming on the day and supporting and helping out will help going forward," she said.

"We should all be on equal playing fields and not discriminated against. There are means available to everybody out there."

Of last year's Run For Freedom event in London, Miss Wilberforce explained that she did not really know how to get the idea off the ground.

"I didn't know where to start, again it was meeting people and I came up with the idea of the Run for Freedom with my friends and family. In the back of my mind, quite honestly, this is the event, we are marking the bicentenary, we are raising awareness and it was incredible.

"We haven't even started, this is simply the beginning."

Stop The Traffik deals with the production of products that we take for granted in the developed world – one such item is chocolate.

"The Stop The Traffik campaign deals with things that so many people aren't aware of," pointed out Miss Wilberforce, when speaking about child slaves in Africa.

"Now I eat Green & Black (organic chocolate), because it is fair-trade chocolate and it is not produced by slave children on the Ivory Coast of Africa.

"They are particularly young boys between the ages of eight and 10 years old and they have these sharp scythes, and they are chopping and sometimes they miss and cut their legs or they are up in the trees and they fall and break their bones, but they just have to lay there and then they are kicked out.

"If you make a stand against it and buy fair trade, it helps."

Miss Wilberforce added that 200 years ago, slavery mainly surrounded the plantation and people were treated worse than animals, but today, she pointed out, "There is indentured slavery and all kinds of things and it is all about control, so we need to let everybody know what's going on."

Speaking about the publication, "A Crime So Monstrous'', by Ben Skinner, she added: "He covered about four different countries to find out about the slave trade.

"One of the things that he came across was about a nine-year-old girl that he bartered down to $50 to buy.

"And one of the things that he has worked out is that 400 years ago a slave was worth the equivalent of $40,000, so they were almost like an investment, where as nowadays, it's like $50. We really have a huge problem.

"When they are in dire straits – what choice is there, none. You've got no control of it. You can be seated on a 747 and looking around or they can be in a container and you don't even see it or the back of a lorry. So we really want to raise awareness, it's the right thing to do."

When asked about how were people being transported between borders, she said: "It is between 600,000 to 800,000 people and that is pretty much a rough number, so who knows how many more.

When sitting in your comfortable chair in Bermuda, one might ask, well, "What can I do to help?"

Miss Wilberforce's answer: "The main thing is the event, invite your friends and join things like www.stopthetraffik.org, because it is really quite heartbreaking – get to know about it.

"Also through that you can put on your own events and create your own self-awareness while reaching out to other people."

The run, which can also be walked, starts at 1 p.m. at Barrs Bay Park and finishes at the same spot, where entertainment is being lined up from 1.45 p.m. Late-comers will be encouraged to do the walk and catch up afterwards.

Entry forms are available from Daisy & Mac, Washington Mall Upper Level, KAFU Hair and Gallery in Parliament Street, The Royal Gazette office on Par-la-Ville Road, and are being distributed elsewhere.

It costs $10 for children up to 16; $20 for adults; $50 for a family of four; $30 to enter on the day of the event.

The first 300 entrants will receive a free T-shirt and goody bag.

You can send direct payments to Bank of Bermuda's Run For Freedom account (010-778488-011). You can also sign up online, or let organisers know you're a local charity who could benefit from Run For Freedom, by e-mailing runforfreedom@yahoo.com.

For more information, visit www.geocities.com/runforfreedom/london_bermuda.html or check out the Run For Freedom Facebook group, which now has more than 200 members.