The Issue: Modern-Day Slavery in Pakistan

In the heart of rural Pakistan, nestled among dusty roads and arid landscapes, lie the brick kilns; vast, sprawling furnaces where clay is molded and baked into the bricks that fuel the country’s construction industry. But beneath the surface of these 20,000 kilns is a darker story, one of generational slavery that entraps entire families in a cycle of debt and bondage.

The Genesis of Bondage

The cycle often begins with a small loan—maybe for a medical emergency, a wedding, or simply to put food on the table. Unable to secure funds from formal sources due to their poverty, families turn to the brick kiln owners, who are more than willing to advance them money in exchange for their labor. The terms are harsh, often unspoken but universally understood: until the debt is repaid, the borrower and their family must work in the kilns. This arrangement, however, is a trap. The wages are meager, and the cost of living continues to mount, ensuring that the debt never shrinks, but grows.

Life in the brick Kilns

Families live in small, makeshift homes near the kilns, often mere shacks built from the very bricks they produce. From dawn until dusk, men, women, and even children labor under the scorching sun, their hands caked with mud and their bodies weary from the relentless work. The process is grueling: clay is dug up, mixed with water, molded into bricks, and then baked in the towering kilns. The air is thick with the stench of burning coal, and the constant heat makes breathing difficult.

Children who should be in school instead learn to carry bricks on their heads, balancing them with practiced precision. Women, traditionally seen as the backbone of the household in this country, toil alongside men, their roles in the kilns blurring the lines between gender and labor.

Generational Chains

What makes this slavery truly insidious is its generational nature. Children born into debt inherit their parents' burden, starting their lives with the weight of bondage already on their shoulders. By the time they are old enough to understand their situation, it’s too late—they are already part of the system. Education is a distant dream; their world is limited to the brick kilns, and their future is predetermined by the debts of their forebears.

Some families have been trapped in this cycle for generations, each one deeper in debt than the last. With no legal documentation of these debts, the brick kiln owners manipulate the system to keep families bound indefinitely. Even if a worker manages to scrape together enough money to pay off the initial loan, the owners often fabricate new debts, citing expenses for food, housing, or even tools.

Attempts at Liberation

Over the years, there have been efforts to free these bonded laborers. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activists have worked tirelessly to raise awareness, secure legal rights for workers, and offer alternative livelihoods. The Pakistani government has introduced laws to combat bonded labor, but enforcement is weak, and corruption is rampant.

Rescued families often face severe challenges in adapting to life outside the kilns. With little education and few skills beyond brick-making, they struggle to find work, and many end up returning to the kilns, unable to survive in the outside world.

The Hope of Freedom

Yet, amidst the bleakness, there is hope. Through an army of modern-day abolitionists like you, Families Set Free is on mission to end generational slavery in Pakistan, one family at a time. With your help, we can rescue, resettle, and restore 100,000 people from the brick kilns of Pakistan in the next five years. It’s a big goal, but together we can set them free.

For $2000, you can free a family of five from a lifetime of slavery — that’s a mere $400 per person — by providing food and shelter, a business for the parents, education and training for the children and youth; all within a small, structured community of families that meet regularly through the “savings group” model to learn key financial skills for long-term sustainability in the outside world.

No gift is too small — or too big. Please join us and bring hope of freedom to the slave families of Pakistan.