Imagine you are locked in your own private prison. You do not speak the same language as your subjugator. On the rare occasion you are escorted off of the premise, you are forbidden from talking to anyone. You are often fed the leftover food of the children you are required to watch while completing your around-the-clock household cleaning. You have never been paid for your labors and are sometimes physically abused by the woman of the house.

While this scenario seems to hark back to an earlier time in US history, it describes the working conditions of many domestic workers in the Washington, DC area. Unfortunately, modern-day slavery and worker exploitation is currently being practiced here in this country, right in the shadow of the nation’s Capitol.

The Break the Chain Campaign works with domestic workers who are being held against their will, literally enslaved in the homes they clean. BTCC provides direct legal and support services to abused workers in the DC area, assists on cases nationally, and advocates for policy reform for this and other forms of human trafficking and exploitation.