Education

Children of enslaved families rarely have access to an education. Many are born in the kilns and know of no other world than the clay and bricks of the kiln. As part of our support for bonded-labor families, we run five schools in four towns and villages, educating enslaved or very poor children. There is no shortage of need, and it is an incredible gift for parents in slavery to see their children educated and given the hope of a future.

Want to help? Get in on the action and sponsor some education. We need people like you to help to keep this going! Even small monthly donations combine to make a big difference.

Economic Empowerment

Before we set a family free, the Freeslaves team works with local communities to find jobs for enslaved families. If we cannot source a job then we give families a grant to start their own business. The average grant is around $300. We have created or placed people in work in many different areas, including sewing and textiles, chicken-farming, vegetable selling, transportation, labouring, factories, industry, and market gardening.

Community Development

A key part of the Freeslaves work is to build strong communities. We provide food, medical, and financial assistance for people in extreme need. We help students by sponsoring higher education. And often we install wells.  

Pakistan has the fourth worst water in the world and only 20% of the population has access to safe drinking water. Waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, and worm infections account for 80% of all diseases in Pakistan, and are responsible for a third of all deaths, and 60% of all infant deaths. For the people of Pakistan water is truly a matter of life and death.

Providing clean water in Pakistan not only saves lives and prevents suffering, but it also helps to keep people out of slavery. By reducing the chances of waterborne infections and diseases, families are less likely to enslave themselves in order to pay for the medical treatment of such diseases.

New Life

As part of providing a new life for our enslaved families, we arrange accommodation, work and education. But in order to have a truly new life, we also need to help people find healing from the trauma of slavery. 

People who have been enslaved at the kilns often experience violence, abuse, and sexual assaults on top of the exploitation. They come out of the kilns with a level of trauma that keeps people in a kind of emotional slavery–captive to grief, anger, bitterness, and injustice. The Freeslaves team have now started a trauma recovery programme. 

In addition, the Freeslaves project publishes and distributes books and media that help people to find healing, and we are pleased to say, the results have been stunning!