Jacinda Townsend reporting in Al Jazeera:
More hereSalimata Lam is the national coordinator for S O S Esclaves, a Mauritanian association dedicated to fighting modern-day slavery. It is arguably the country's premiere antislavery organisation, founded in 1995 by Boubacar Ould Messaoud, a dynamic former lawyer who is widely regarded as "the grand-pere of the abolitionist movement".
image via Al Jazeera
But Lam is modest and says of her work: "The commitment and trust in the correctness of what one is doing will always give you the courage to do and continue."
Sarah Mathewson, the Africa programme coordinator of Anti-Slavery International, which works with SOS Esclaves to combat slavery, is a little more forthcoming about just what it is Lam contributes: "She is the backbone of SOS Esclaves. She runs the project in a very quiet way behind the scenes. She is very committed to the victims and the work. We can never raise enough money for the salary she deserves, but she just carries on, working all kinds of hours and making all sorts of personal sacrifices to do this work she believes in."
