Bonded brick kiln workers given hope
We would like to share with you the stories of our brothers and sisters living and working in brick kilns, their hardships, struggles and persecution as a believer in Christ. Thousands of Pakistani Christians are Brick-kiln workers who borrow money from their employer for essential needs at a time of family crisis. The debts keep each family bonded to their brink-kiln, with money deducted from their wages to pay the interest on the loan. It is impossible, in their poverty, to pay off the debts, and these debts can be passed down from generation to generation.
Despised, despairing and trapped, the bonded brick-kiln workers feel like slaves.
Christian families are bond to work at brick-kilns because they have sold all their land and animals in an attempt to pay off their debts. Many have asked for loans and received them, but unfortunately brick-kiln employers do not let them finish paying their loans forcing them to continue to work for them essentially as slaves.
Recently the CFAM Pakistan team visited brick-kiln No 22 district Kasur with the mobile Sunday school. Most of families working at this Brick-kiln are Christians and they face many hurdles, difficulties and live in very difficult condition because there is no schooling system, no church, no bible education, and many families and children do not understand the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are so thankful that we have been able to start a Sunday school program there (22 District Kasur). Many parents want to provide schooling to their children but are unable to because lack of opportunities and they many challenges they face. They are burdened with their debt to their employer, their children also work to help pay the debt, so they face difficult decisions of whether to send their children to Sunday School or keep them to work and help pay off their debt. Most Christian girls and women who work face constant sexual harassment, physically harassment, threats of Blasphemy charges and forceful conversion of religion. Many of their children have been getting sick due to the hot weather in summer, dengue fever, Covid-19 and other communicable diseases.
Please pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan.
