The Freedom Campaign – A life free of slavery
We often think that slavery is a thing of the past, however even today, 24.9 million people are in trapped in a form of modern slavery: forced labour. Of all those trapped in these cycles of forced labour, 25% are children.
Work in this way tends to be difficult, dangerous and challenging, including construction, bricklaying, agriculture and domestic work. As there is no way to control these workplaces, workers are often working long days with little or no breaks, under the blazing sun and for little pay. Women and girls are at a higher risk of exploitation and trafficking.
When families are struggling to get by, a sudden financial burden like a medical bill can completely throw a spanner in the works. People then have no other option than to take a loan, unaware of interest rates or if they’ll ever be able to return it. They are then convinced to work for the loan-giver, usually as a brick layer in their kiln, earning less than £1 per day.
The debtor determines their pay, and will use most of their labour towards the repayment of the loan while also adding interest each day. In essence, people are unable to pay off their loans and remain trapped in these brutal cycles. The loan gets passed on between generations, leading to children too, working in these kilns instead of going to school. Your Zakat can help free a family from the chains of debt and their forced labour.
Donate now to help a family in need pay off their loan and to give them the freedom they deserve.
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Bonded labour, also sometimes referred to as debt bondage or peonage is a form of modern slavery.
It occurs when people have no option than to offer themselves and their labour as a security against a loan or an existing debt from a relative. In these cases, while the worker will aim to pay off the debt through their labour, the employer will also continue to add interest, making it very difficult for the loan to be entirely repaid.
Workers are massively taken advantage of and exploited, often carrying out very dangerous work such as operating burning kilns, lifting heavy bricks and working in unhygienic environments and under the sun with no protection.
If the person who took the loan will pass away, it is expected that their children will pay off the debt instead. This causes a brutal, endless cycle of forced labour. Children also get forced into this cycle, and many of whom spend their childhood working in kilns rather than receiving an education.
Your donations can help take a family out of modern-day slavery & help generations to flourish.
Entire families have been enslaved for generations due to vicious cycles of debt and poverty.
Kiln owners charge families more for housing than they pay them in wages, ensuring their debt is never paid and they never leave the brickyards.
80% of working children have never been to school. Without an education, children have no chance to find opportunities outside the brickyards.
work such as construction, bricklaying, agriculture or domestic work.
As these workers usually don’t have their own accommodation so they use the accommodation kiln over provide. The kiln owner charges the rent and electricity bills. Therefore, get these bills added to their original loan on monthly basis.
These poor labourers are already living in poverty. A sudden need for funds such as an emergency medical bill or a natural disaster destroying their home, forces them to borrow money from the kiln owner. In developing countries bank usually required property as a guarantee which they don’t have.
Their wages are often very low where they barely fulfil their daily need without repaying the original debt. Also, they need to make 1000 bricks a day if they cant reach the target, the kiln owners are used not to pay the whole day of the labour or they pay half. As they were hardly fulfilling their daily need if another tragedy happens, like arranging a marriage, for the medical treatment of any in the family or if there is a death in the family, they need to borrow money from the kiln owner again and this cycle continue for ever.
In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and mostly African countries the bonded labour still flourishes in agriculture, brick kilns, mills, mines and factories. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are forced to work as bonded labourers in brick kilns and agriculture, often suffering extreme exploitation and abuse.
Bonded labour flourishes because of poverty and widespread caste-based discrimination. Limited access to justice, education and jobs for discriminated groups makes it difficult to get out of poverty. The need for cash for daily survival forces people to sell their labour in exchange for a loan.
Despite the fact that bonded labour is illegal the laws are rarely enforced, particularly where the people who exploit those from more vulnerable groups belong to the ruling classes.
Islamically they are Zakat eligible as described in the holy Quran as follows, "The alms are meant only for the poor and the needy and those who are in charge thereof, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free those in bondage, and to help those burdened with debt, and for expenditure in the Way of Allah and for the wayfarer. This is an obligation from Allah. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (Quran 9:60)
The debt amount is vary from families to families, some families have debts even more than $2000 and some less than that. Its hard to manage the donation for each family so we have the average donation amount to free a family from the crippling debt.
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