Our Story

In 2014, our founder was working in Bali providing staff support for a local non-profit that ran a safehouse for trafficked teen girls. At the urging of local colleagues, she collaborated with another organization to hold a training conference for caregivers from around the country. The response was huge, and it was clear that there was both a need and a desire for an organization dedicated to supporting the (at the time) disconnected grassroots anti-trafficking NGO community around Indonesia.

In collaboration with this same community, Dark Bali formed to provide professional training and coordinate an anti-trafficking coalition in Bali. Two years later, this pilot program extended into other parts of Indonesia in response to invitations of other organizations. In 2018, Dark Bali registered as a Indonesian Yayasan (non-profit) and as a 501(c)3 in the United States to make it easier to obtain international funding for the coalition. By the end of 2020, the 6 founding organizations of the coalition expanded to over two dozen member organizations with many other participating organizations as well as government social services and police units.

From the very beginning, Dark Bali’s purpose was to see slavery eliminated in Indonesia by supporting the hardworking local abolitionist community. Data clearly shows that the most effective social changes happen because of well-coordinated, focused coalitions, and it is our honor to help provide some of the structure and support so that our community can move as a unified whole against human trafficking in Indonesia.

Our first team photo as an officially registered Indonesian non-profit.