Freedom Fighter

Katie Ford is taking her fight against modern-slavery to another level by giving them opportunities after freeing them, so she tells Chit L Lijauco

- Chit L Lijauco

On her umpteenth visit to the Philippines, Katie Ford, the founder and CEO of Freedom For All, came bearing great news. “We are opening a business, a legitimate recruitment business for domestic workers, in the Middle East,” she told Philippine Tatler during an interview before a dialogue on anti-human trafficking where she was the guest speaker. Her first time to go into business again after 11 years since she led the top modelling agency started by her parents, Katie explained why. “So many of the people we freed [from modern-day slavery] were promised different jobs so I thought we ought to be involved in this as well,” she said.

Called Housekeeping Co, its mission is to “offer fair hiring for foreign domestic workers world-wide, to support families in their effective engagement and relationship management, and to train every foreign domestic worker and up-skill set in becoming the best of what they can do.”

It’s interesting to note that Katie is back in an agency, in the same industry of placing people in jobs. “It is very similar [to the modelling agency],” she agreed. “In fact, I use the concept [of the Ford Agency] here; and I use the example of what my parents did to modelling.”