About Aashika Damodar

Aashika Damodar is the founder and CEO of a non profit organization called Survivors Connect, which works to develop and extend innovative ICT platforms for advancing grassroots anti-human trafficking efforts around the globe. Their most recent project, Ayiti SMS SOS, which a SMS-based helpline and monitoring program for victims of violence and exploitation in Haiti recently won the Excellence in Media Use Award from the Society for New Communications Research. Other notable projects by Survivors Connect include: The Survivors Digital Quilt, SMS Traffick Watch, and the Freedom Datamap. Aashika is also launching a social enterprise arm of Survivors Connect called 160 Fair Labor which allows job-matching organizations to use mobile technology to connect informal sector workers (ie maids, nannies, cooks, drivers etc.) with employers with the goal of creating a replicable and scalable solution to combating unemployment and labor rights abuses.

Aashika is also working on another major social venture, bridging her love for fashion and innovation called Breakin Heelz. Breakin Heelz is a simple idea for a company, which transforms the collective power of consumers into a financial force against human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the UK. Having a patented height adjustable high-heel shoe technology, Breakin’ Heelz teams up with iconic fashion brands to produce Breakin’ Heelz branded shoes. A portion of the profits from each Breakin’ Heelz™ shoe goes towards launching the first ever “First Offender Prostitution Program” (FOPP) in the UK that works to curb the demand side of CSE and human trafficking, as well as funds for rehabilitation/social service provision for victims and survivors in the UK.

She recently graduated from Cambridge University with a MPhil Degree in Development Studies. Prior to this, she studied non-profit management and leadership at Georgetown University and worked as a Zimmerman Fellow for Free the Slaves in Washington D.C.. Aashika received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley where she studied Anthropology & Political Science.

Nothing is off limits when contacting Aashika