Help Free Children from Brick Slavery

Hello I’m Ursula Bielski, one of the founders of Little Flower School in Pakistan. I'm a Chicago-based writer and speaker, and a year ago, I met my friend Khurram, a Pakistani Christian called by Jesus to minister singlehandedly to enslaved families in the brick factory of his city.

Inspired by his work, I began supporting Khurram through donations of funds, books and writing supplies and daily prayer.

Through donations we were able to raise enough money to free one entire family in August of 2023. Now we are working to free the rest. As we work to raise funds to pay off these families' debts, we teach the children to read and write Urdu and English and we teach them about Jesus through Bible study, music and prayer.

Please watch the video to learn more about Khurram and the conditions these families live under--and about the hope and joy they have even in deplorable conditions.

Your United States dollars are worth FIVE TIMES MORE in Pakistan. Most of these families are enslaved for the want of a thousand USD or less! If you want to help someone but aren't sure where your money is, going, look no further. You will see these slaves go free to live again because of your help!

God bless you!

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Transcript of the video follows:

Khurram is one of a tiny minority of Pakistani Christians courageously practicing his faith but also reaching out with the Gospel message to share Jesus Christ with the often hostile Muslim community in which he lives.

Like millions of other Pakistanis, many of Khurram's neighbors are enslaved. Because of family health emergencies, the deaths of providers or other emergencies, families take loans from brick company owners. These brick factories provide bricks to the government for construction, and countless bricks are made each day across Pakistan. In exchange for these meager loans, these families are literally enslaved to the owners until the debts are paid off. This includes not only the adults but the elderly members of the family and even children as young as two and three years old. These children are taken out of school and often spend the rest of their lives in brick slavery, as each time a family member is ill or must take leave from work for an emergency, their debts rise exponentially.

My friend Khurram is not enslaved but lives in poverty. The only work available is seasonal work on the local farms. He works full time picking vegetables for about 80 USD per MONTH or cutting wheat at harvest time for a small share of the harvest. Despite his own poverty, Khurram holds Christian services and Bible study in his home and wherever others are interested in learning about Jesus. I met Khurram at Christmas when I hired him on a freelancer platform to help me with some research on a Christian topic. He was working to raise money for his Christian ministry. We became friends and I began learning about his family and his ministry.

About a month after we met he told me he was going out to a local brick factory because he was very concerned about the children in these enslaved families. The parents are illiterate and the children were pulled from school to work and don’t know how to read or write, some with no hope of ever returning to school because of the family’s debts. He told me the factory was five miles away and is overseen by Muslims who know he is a Christian and told him not to come there. Despite their warnings he was determined to begin teaching the children.

Because of your support we have been able to send workbooks, notebooks and storybooks for the children AND for their parents in February. In March because of your support we were able to send money for Khurram to purchase school bags for the children to carry and protect their school supplies. Khurram was able to purchase a white board and pointer as well to help him teach. On several occasions, your support allowed Khurram to purchase food to cook lunch for the children and their families as a special celebration and treat. This past month we were able to help Khurram purchase a bicycle so that he would not have to walk the ten miles a day to and from the factory to teach. Often he would work all morning, walk to the factory to teach and then return to work until the evening.

Almost every night he stays up until 2 or 3 am doing Bible study and preparing preaching for his services.

I cannot express how grateful both Khurram and I are for everything you have done to support this work. Their families can't even believe that anyone would care about them or their children. But I am telling you that we have to do more. And we have the ability to do more.

Because these families have seen our generosity to their children and to them, they trusted me when I asked Khurram last week if they would share with us the amounts of debt they owe to their captors.

Now you have to understand that in Pakistan the American dollar is worth five times more than it is here. Some of these families live in slavery for a generation or more over a few hundred dollars of debt that has grown because of the horrendous “fines” imposed on them for being sick or tending to other emergencies. Sometimes, if a parent has to leave work because of illness or death, a child, wife or other family member may be sold by the factory owner to make up the lost work. Sold.

There are seventeen families that work at the brick factory where Khurram ministers. Those seventeen families, including children as young as two, grandparents in their eighties and adults and teens, owe a total of a mere 15,000 American dollars. Seventeen entire families are enslaved for want of 15,000 dollars.

My dear friends, won’t you today, right now, quickly contribute whatever you can to release these precious children and their families from slavery? When I say every penny helps, it really does. And it helps not with a temporary fix, but to end the curse of slavery on these families.

Your contribution goes right to Khurram, and that means we can see these children begin to be FREED from slavery NOW, TODAY. Because of you.

As I already said, there are millions of Pakistanis enslaved in the brick factories, but these seventeen families are our friends. We have shown them that we love them as we love ourselves, as Christ told us we must do.

Thank you so much for your support of Khurram’s courage in the face of so much adversity and danger.

Every day he says, “You and America have been called by God. I have seen it in you and your friends. “ He means you. He prays for all of you every single day. He tells me, “May God use you more.” And I’m passing that on to you today. May God use you more.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for contributing today. God bless you!