Campaign strategist and KNI Communications president Sean Tenner has helped candidates win seats in the Illinois judiciary, the Illinois legislature, and the city councils of Chicago and Washington, DC. He is also an anti-slavery activist who fights for the freedom of slaves in Mauritania, Sean Tenner co-founded the Abolition Institute in 2013.

1. Abolition Institute’s Aichana Abeid
Boilil Awards
Sean Tenner

2. Campaign strategist and KNI Communications president Sean Tenner has helped
candidates win seats in the Illinois judiciary, the Illinois legislature, and the city
councils of Chicago and Washington, DC. He is also an anti-slavery activist who
fights for the freedom of slaves in Mauritania, Sean Tenner co-founded the Abolition
Institute in 2013.
Every February 12, the Abolition Institute commemorates the birthday of Abraham
Lincoln by honoring the people who carried on the former American president’s
legacy of fighting slavery. At the Abolition Institute, February 12 is the day of the
Aichana Abeid Boilil Awards.

3. Aichana Abeid Boilil was the first Mauritanian woman rescued from slavery by SOS
Esclaves, the Abolition Institute’s partner organization in the fight against modern-
day slavery in the African country of Mauritania. Today, Aichana Abeid Boilil lives in
Mauritania’s capital city of Nouakchott. She continues to advocate against slavery
in Mauritania.
Boilil escaped from her slaveowner after she was severely maltreated. In her
escape, she left her five children in her slaveowner’s home. In 1996, Boilil asked SOS
Esclaves to help her recover her children.

4. With the help of other human rights groups, SOS Esclaves threatened to bring
the matter to the international arena. To avoid international embarrassment,
the minister of justice ordered the court to return Boilil’s children. However, she
has recovered only four of her children because the fifth child is now the
property of her former slaveowner’s daughter. As of today, Boilil is still working
for the recovery of her fifth child.