Pakistan (MNN) – The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting says an estimated 3.5 to 4 million bonded laborers work in around 20,000 Pakistani brick kilns.
While the practice of bonded labor in the country has been illegal since the 1990s, it is not commonly enforced. Debts carry on to children so the slavery is cyclical and inescapable. Entire generations are being born into slavery as families work for years to pay off their initially small loans.
These factories, which require the laborious and exhaustive work of adults and children, are known to cause severe health issues and do not report back to families on how much debt is owed or what the interest rates are.
Brian Dennett with AMG International says, “These [kilns] are all over Pakistan and [slaves] make bricks one by one, by hand. This has been going on for years and years. It’s a long-held practice in Pakistan. People are forced to toil from dawn to dusk with quotas of what they have to produce.”
(Photo courtesy of Muhammad Muzamil via Unsplash)
Thanks to AMG and its supporters, Rasul and his three children were rescued from slavery in a brick kiln.
“This was [his] daily nightmare,” says Dennett. “Working conditions where your lungs are filled with dust all day long. [Spending] hours in the hot sun, sunburns, [with] his own young children working right alongside him stacking bricks instead of learning to read and write.”
“Many of these families are Christians, our brothers and sisters [who are] highly discriminated against in the workplace anywhere else in Pakistan. It drives them into these terrible situations.”
The AMG team in Pakistan works with legal professionals to try and rescue these families and stop this cycle. Last year they began to raise money for a school so that the children of slaves will have an opportunity to escape the cycle.
Set to open in the next couple of months, Dennett says, “We’re going to have a beautiful, safe facility within walking distance of the brick kilns in that area. This is going to provide many children the opportunity to study in a Christian environment where the gospel is shared [and] where hope is shared. We’re just excited for this to grow and to see more and more families get out of slavery like Rasul was able to.”
The school will share the gospel and hope of Jesus and will welcome the children of slaves from all faith backgrounds.
The school will be operated using child sponsorship funding but has a remaining need of roughly $40,000 for final startup expenses, like school supplies and furnishings and welcomes funding for this project and in general.
Please pray for the team working in this area as the gospel is not always welcomed in Pakistan. Pray that God’s hand will be on the school and a step toward ending this labor. Pray that the resources and support for this ministry will be strong and empower the team to do good work.
Header photo of man in Lahore, Pakistan courtesy of Lumensoft Technologies via Unsplash.
