Brick Kiln Freedom
Rescuing Christian families trapped in brick-kiln debt bondage across Pakistan, paying their debt, bringing them out and giving them a new life. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free." Luke 4:18
Modern-day slavery in Pakistan
Brick kilns operating across Pakistan.
Bonded labourers trapped in the kilns.
Average family debt: a small loan that becomes a lifetime trap.
Debt passes from parents to children unless someone intervenes.
Brick-kiln bondage
Christian families in Pakistan’s brick kilns are trapped in a cycle of debt bondage. A kiln owner gives a small loan, often just $800 to $1,000, for food, a hospital bill or a daughter’s wedding. High interest, wage deductions and false calculations make sure it can never be repaid, and the whole family is tethered to the kiln.
Entire families, including children, work seven days a week from sunup to sundown for almost no wages. Every day they work, the debt is said to grow, not shrink. The system is designed so they can never leave.
The debt passes from parents to children: generational slavery that has persisted for decades. The Christian minority is targeted most, because they have the fewest legal protections and the least power to resist.
Loans taken for the basics of life
Food
Hungry families take advances just to feed their children.
Medical Treatment
A single illness or injury forces them into debt.
Dowry
Cultural pressure to marry off daughters pushes families deeper into bondage.
Previous Debt
Old loans are rolled over with crushing interest, trapping generations.
Bonded labour is illegal, and still everywhere
In Pakistan the brick-kiln industry is notorious for exploiting the most vulnerable. Families are trapped in a cycle of debt, forced to work for years to pay off loans that seem impossible to repay. Whole families become enslaved and work long hours in extreme heat and dust for minimal pay.
Bonded labour is illegal in Pakistan, but it remains everywhere because of weak enforcement, ignorance and widespread corruption. Children as young as five make bricks instead of going to school, and the cycle of poverty and bondage continues into the next generation.
Three reasons families cannot escape
Generational Debt
Debt passed from parents to children, families trapped for decades with no legal mechanism for freedom.
Child Labour
Children work in the kilns instead of attending school, their futures stolen before they begin.
No Legal Recourse
Without outside intervention, families have no legal path to freedom. The system works against them at every turn.
Freedom and restoration
The Brick Kiln Freedom Project of Good Samaritan Ministries exists to break the cycle of bonded labour and give families a real way out of slavery: their debt paid, their freedom signed in front of witnesses, and a new life built on honest work and a local church.
- Rescue families from bonded labour: identifying those trapped in the kilns and offering a way out
- Pay the outstanding debt and secure the family’s legal freedom, with witnesses and signed papers
- Relocate freed families to safe housing far from the kilns, so the cycle cannot restart
- Restore dignity with a Chingchi rickshaw or vocational training, so the family earns from day one
- Enrol the children in school and connect the family to a local church community
Identify, intervene, relocate, restore
Identify
Local pastors and church partners identify families living in brick-kiln bondage across Pakistan.
Intervene
We negotiate directly with the kiln owner and pay the outstanding debt, so the family walks out legally free.
Relocate
Freed families are moved to safe housing far from the kilns, breaking the cycle before it can restart.
Restore
Children are enrolled in school, the family receives a Chingchi rickshaw or training in a new skill, and they are welcomed into a local church.
Families on the road to freedom
Freedom needs a livelihood. After paying a family’s debt, we give them a Chingchi rickshaw, the three-wheeled motorbike taxi (like a tuk-tuk) used across Pakistan for public transport from village to village, village to market and stop to stop. It gives a freed family a daily wage from the very first day, so they never have to borrow from a kiln owner again.
Safdar Masih and family
Safdar Masih and his family were freed from the brick kiln after their debt was paid. Good Samaritan Ministries then gave them a Chingchi rickshaw, a food package and a bag of flour. Today Safdar carries passengers from village to village and earns a daily wage for his family.
Shahbaz Masih and family
Shahbaz Masih and his family walked out of the kiln as free people. With the Chingchi rickshaw they received, Shahbaz now runs the route between the village and the market, stop to stop, and brings home an honest income every evening.
Abid Masih and family
Abid Masih and his family no longer make bricks to repay a debt that never ended. Their own Chingchi rickshaw gives them daily work carrying people and goods between the villages, and a new beginning for their little ones.
From Struggle to Strength: The Story of Shahbaz Masih
Shahbaz Masih and his family spent years making bricks to repay a debt that only grew. Today they are free. In this short film Shahbaz tells his own story: the kiln, the day the debt was paid, and the Chingchi rickshaw that now gives his family a daily wage and a new life.
Every family still in the kilns has a story like his waiting to be told. Your gift pays a debt, opens a gate and puts a family on the road to freedom.
The Story of Rescuing a Pastor From Slavery
He was called to preach the Gospel, yet he and his family were bound to a brick kiln by debt. Good Samaritan Ministries paid what was owed and brought them out. Now he is faithfully serving in the ministry, shepherding believers and telling others about the God who set him free.
This is what rescue looks like: not only a family released, but a servant of God restored to his calling.
Every gift frees a real family from real chains
Rescue, Relocation and a Rickshaw
Full family rescue: debt payment, relocation to safety, school for the children and a Chingchi rickshaw so the family can earn a daily wage.
Free a familySpeak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.Proverbs 31:8
Partner with Good Samaritan Ministries
Every gift places Urdu Bibles in homes, plants churches, cares for widows and keeps children in school across Pakistan.
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