There are 27 million people enslaved today

Zach Hunter is nineteen. Despite his age, Zach has  already written three books - Be The Change, Generation Change, Lose Your Cool.  Zach speaks and writes to raise awareness about the issue of slavery. Check out his website here.


How old were you when you wrote your first book?

I was 14 when I started the book, and turned 15 in the middle of it.

Did you have anyone helping you with the project?

No, I did this myself.

I compiled the book from things I had been speaking about.

How did you get a start?

I found out from my mom that there are more than 27 million people enslaved today.

We are given emotion for a reason, to move us to action.

Tell us about slavery around the world.

There are more people enslaved now than during the entire transatlantic slave trade.

There are more now than ever before.

It's a shame. It's estimated that more than 27,500 people are trafficked into this nation every year.

Slavery takes so many forms, plantation labor, bonded labor.

What can we do about it?

Awareness is definitely a huge deal.

I've been speaking about this for seven years now...and I'm still surprised that there are people who haven't heard about it.

So we need to reach critical mass on awareness.

We need to get enough people aware that movement starts to happen.

The focus for this year is on prevention.

It seems like so much of it will be legal. Is there anything that someone listening right now can do?

I would say sponsor a kid through Compassion International.

As Americans we love to rush to a fire and put it out. We love to rush to an emergency and help out.

At the same time, what if we can prevent a fire from happening in the first place.....that's what we're doing by sponsoring Compassion kids.

Being educated makes them much less at risk for slavery.

Tell me what Loose Change to Loosen Chains is all about.

It's really just a huge fundraiser I started when I was 12.

It's a student-led organization to raise money for International Justice Mission.

Essentially it's just raising loose change to stop slavery.

Are you headed to college anywhere?

Yep, I'll be going to college in Colorado Springs.

I'll be writing more.

And I have some fun speaking engagements coming up.