GCR visits Pakistan’s brick kilns
The heat of the kiln radiates outward as workers fuel the furnace. Two men, covered in dark soot from shoveling coal, wave to us as we walk by. The GCR team is on its way to meet Maryam, a Christian mother and wife—now widowed—who has spent the last twenty years of her life doing something unexpected: making bricks.
When we arrive at Maryam’s house, she and her daughters warmly welcome us into their modest home. We sit outside their bedrooms in a small and humble courtyard. Bricks surround us—a reminder of the suffering Maryam has endured as a bonded slave in one of Pakistan’s 20,000 brick kilns.
Maryam’s story
When Maryam’s husband fell ill, they took out a loan of just $862 for his medical care. Little did they know that this financial “agreement” with the brick kiln industry would steal their freedom for years. “We agreed to the loan, believing that we would work off our debt in the brick kilns for one year, and then we’d be able to return to our homes,” Maryam recalls. But one year turned to twenty as high interest rates and garnished wages made it impossible to repay the loan.
Persecuted and marginalized, Pakistan’s minority Christians represent less than 2% of the South Asian nation’s population. Believers who are poor, like Maryam’s family, often receive the brunt of discrimination. Impoverished Christ followers make up a large percentage of the brick kiln laborers. The kiln system is meant to entrap them, and once a family accepts a loan, it is extremely difficult for them to pay it off. Then the loans travel from generation to generation, ensnaring the children of these laborers in the same cycle of indebtedness as their parents.
Maryam and her husband raised their four children in the brick kilns. As they grew older, they were left with no choice but to abandon their education and join their parents as fellow brick makers. Their daughter Shazia, only twelve years old, now makes hundreds of bricks a day. “She used to go to school, but now she makes bricks … since her father passed away,” Maryam shares tearfully. “This is how we make our living.”
Maryam becomes a persecuted Christian widow
Their struggles multiplied when, after years of breathing in dust and mud, Maryam’s husband passed away from severe asthma this past July. After a lifetime together, Maryam still can hardly speak of him without being overcome with emotion. The loss left her not only full of grief, but also vulnerable to the harassment and abuse so prevalent in the kilns. There is an unspoken danger here: many young girls and women are sexually abused—and not having a father present for protection makes the risk even higher for Maryam and her daughters. “I now have to rely on my son for a living and for protection. The girls have to come with me to work. It’s the only way to keep my daughters safe,” she explains.
Amidst these challenges, Maryam’s faith in Christ has remained unwavering. Weekly, she and her family attend small house church fellowships with other Christians in the brick kilns where they worship, hear Scripture, and pray together. “My trust in Jesus has helped console me. We trust Him.”
Maryam finds freedom through the Body of Christ
There is hope for Maryam’s family and other Christian laborers in the brick kilns. Thanks to generous donors like you, GCR was able to fully pay off Maryam’s family’s debt. This debt, only $862, had trapped her family in bondage for decades.
We were able to present an official check to the brick kiln owner and see the ledger that cleared Maryam’s debt for good. Then we returned to her home to have a quiet celebration with chocolate cake in the courtyard. The sun was beginning to fade as Maryam smiled and passed cake around to a small group of believers who gathered with us. Then Shazia, her daughter, took a bite, smiled, and laid her head on her mother’s as if to say, God heard our prayers.
Maryam is no longer living under the burden of being a bonded slave. She will now receive proper wages for her labor, and her children have the freedom to pursue their dreams. When asked how her life will be affected by this newfound freedom, Maryam says, “Now we can save a little money. I will be able to save and invest for our daughters’ future marriages. Our health will benefit as well, and it will help our kids … they won’t have to sacrifice their dreams of the future.”
To help ensure these dreams can come true, GCR provided Maryam’s son with supplies for an income-generating project. He received a fruit cart and a donkey, and he is now able to add to the family’s earnings by selling these goods in nearby villages. Samha, Maryam’s oldest daughter, hopes to use her skills and sewing machine to open a family-run tailor shop, a dream that is now within reach.
Maryam continues to thank us and all who made her debt relief possible. She emphasizes, “When we prayed before, we mainly asked God for our daily bread, and felt grateful to Him for just feeding us. We used to ask that we would be free from making bricks, but now he has given this to us. We are so blessed. We would ask that God would help us pay our loans so our children can be free. Now, he has given us enough. The children are now free, and they can earn a living.”
How you can help
In partnership with a local organization in Pakistan, GCR has paid the debts of 14 Christian families trapped in bonded slavery, including Maryam’s. This year, we aim to pay the debts for 50 more Christian families—with the help of supporters like you. Each of these families will receive an income-generation project to teach them how to support their families independently of the kilns. In addition to debt relief, we provide skills training, financial training, consistent medical assistance, and children’s education opportunities in several brick kilns across Pakistan.
There are thousands of Christians still entrapped in this vicious system of bonded labor. Your support is instrumental in breaking the chains of modern-day slavery and offering lives of dignity and hope to these laborers in Pakistan. Together, let’s show our brothers and sisters in the brick kilns that they are not forgotten or alone.
Let’s help free them so they can continue to be a light for Christ across Pakistan.
Please join us in prayer for Maryam and other persecuted Christian widows in Pakistan’s brick kilns.
Lord, thank You for rescuing Maryam and her children from the life sentence of bonded slavery in Pakistan. You are a miracle working God! Please make a way for other hardworking Christian families to receive their freedom in the coming months. You are worthy to be praised for hearing the cries of Your children, and responding in their depths of their despair. Amen.
About the author
Abigail Hart serves on the communications team at Global Christian Relief, where she shares stories of Christian persecution around the world. Read the latest Christian persecution stories on our website and learn more at GlobalChristianRelief.org.
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