MY ACCOUNT
At A Glance:
In Pakistan's 20,000+ brick kilns, millions of people suffer in bonded slavery – roughly a third of them children. This year, with your help, GCR plans to walk 500 families out of bondage through a clear path we call the "Blueprint for Freedom."
Enslaved in Pakistan's brick kilns
Slavery in Pakistan today rarely makes the news. It happens in plain sight, in the brick kilns scattered across the country, where Christian families press mud into bricks from before dawn until after dark, working off debts they did not choose and cannot outrun. They are our brothers and sisters, members of one Church and one family.
And this year, we are setting out to walk 500 of them out of bondage and into freedom.
That is a big goal, around double the number of families we freed last year. Over the next few months, we will introduce you to some of the people behind that number: families our team sat with face-to-face in central Pakistan. Their stories will come one at a time. Before they do, it helps to see the whole picture – what this slavery is, who it holds, and what it takes to break it.
What Slavery in Pakistan Today Looks Like
Slavery in Pakistan today usually begins with something small: a hospital bill, a funeral, a roof that washed away in the rains.
A family borrows from a brick kiln owner to survive. To repay the loan, they make bricks. But the loan is designed to trap them. Interest climbs faster than they can pay. A bad season, a sick child, another emergency – and a debt that started at 30,000 rupees becomes 200,000.
What begins as a season becomes a lifetime. And then it becomes an inheritance. Children are born into the debt their parents could never clear, and they grow up making bricks instead of going to school.
This is bonded labor, a form of modern slavery, and it falls heavily on Pakistan's Christians. More than 80% of believers there come from the poorest communities, and a disproportionate number end up in the kilns. With more than 20,000 kilns in operation, millions of people work the bricks – and roughly a third of them are children.
This is illegal. But it’s also in public practice, everywhere.
A Goal Twice as Big as Last Year
Last year, by God's grace and the faithfulness of partners like you, families walked free from the kilns. This year we are aiming to double that – 500 families released from debt bondage.
We don't say that lightly. It is more than we have ever attempted in Pakistan. But freedom here is not a slogan; it follows a clear path we call the Blueprint for Freedom:
- Debt relief. We pay off a family's debt and release them from the loans that held them. The average cost to free one family is only about $809.
- Income generation. We equip each family with the tools and training to earn a living without borrowing again: a cart, a loader, a sewing machine, a trade.
- Financial training. We walk with them as they learn to manage money, build savings, and weather the next emergency without falling back into the kiln.
Each of these steps depends on the others. A debt cleared without a new income just sends a family back to borrowing, and income without training rarely survives the next emergency. Taken together, they keep a family free.
The Families You'll Meet
In the coming weeks, we'll introduce four families from our most recent trip to Pakistan, whose stories anchor this campaign. A glimpse of each:
- Mumtaz & Shagufta — Thirty-five years in the kilns, a 10-year-old son already working beside his father – and four generations of the family in this same slavery. A father is praying the slavery ends with his family. Mumtaz recites Psalm 23 from memory.
- Aslam & Alice — A father who makes a thousand bricks a day, despite his visibly broken arm, a debt that began with their daughters' medical bills, and a wife whose faith holds the family steady.
- Hassan & Nasreen Bibi — A former truck driver who lost his leg to an accident and then to cancer, trapped by the very debt that saved his life. Their daughter, Amna, has never been to school.
- Sarwar & his wife — A man near the end of decades in the kilns, whose one prayer is that someone would help his ailing wife, and who says God answered by sending "an angel."
Return Visits
We'll also return to families whose stories we've shared in past years, going back to see what freedom looks like further down the road:
- Mushtaq & Nazia — Out of the kilns entirely, running a small loader business and renting their own home. Still earning just a few dollars a day – but free, and praying daily for the families still behind them.
- Azeeb & Sumina — The very first family ever freed through our debt relief work. Today their sons have jobs, a daughter is getting married, and Azeeb wakes at 3 a.m. to pray for everyone still in bondage.
These return visits are proof that the model works, and a reminder of why the next 500 families matter.
One Church, One Family
The families in Pakistan's brick kilns are not a cause. They are kin – your family in Christ.
When one is freed, children go back to school, parents find honest work, and a household that had given up hope begins to rebuild with dignity.
This year, 500 families can walk free. Each one needs brothers and sisters willing to stand with them in prayer and in giving. Will you walk these next months with us, family by family, until the ledger is closed and they are free?
One church. One family. One goal. Help Free a Christian Family in Pakistan
Across Pakistan, Christian families press bricks from dawn to dark to repay debts they can't outrun. But there's a proven path out. For about $809, you can pay off a family's debt and set them on the road to lasting freedom. They're not a cause—they're kin. Will you help free 500 families this year?
