According to the International Labor Organization, child labor has decreased by 38% since 2000, from 246 million to 152 million.  This is such great news and it is due to people like you, opening emails like this, and choosing to take action to end child labor!

We can all agree that exploiting children is wrong on all accounts and should not be happening in our world today. Right now All People Free is working to end slavery in the brick kilns of the Middle East and Asia where roughly 10 million children are forced to work with little hope of freedom unless there is intervention.

More resources:
Compassion International facts and stats
Unicef Child Labor info

"A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman."
- Melinda Gates

When women are given equal access to education, economics and  resources, it benefits the entire community by tackling the root causes of poverty. Do you know that statistically, educated women who have economic agency tend to invest 90% of their income into their families?

That’s why we have started 7 trade schools for girls. We educate women who would otherwise be slaving away in the brickyards--or worse, trafficked into the sex trade--and train them in practical skills such as sewing and business management. The long term impact of this is education, economic growth, and a more empathetic society.
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​“I truly believe the only way we can create global peace is through not only educating our minds, but our hearts and our souls.” - Malala Yousafzai

I (Romay) was given the honor of addressing the women we serve - some of them teachers in our primary schools, some students of our trade schools, most brickyard workers, all of them human. All of them made in the image of God and all of them deserving of value, empathy and love. 

We are so amazed at how many women joined us for this incredible day! To look into the beautiful faces of such strong, resilient women and tell them that they have what it takes to make lasting change for their children was something so special.

We believe that empowering women with skills and agency is a giant leap towards creating a better future for the whole community - the whole world. 

“Education also strengthens economies. When female citizens are better educated, they have a greater chance of becoming gainfully employed, which then raises the income of the entire household. For proof, look no further than a 2003 study by UNESCO, which showed that for every year that a country's average years of schooling increases, its long-term economic growth increases by 3.7%.” Read more

The Importance of Women's Empowerment

“Improved literacy can have a remarkable effect on women’s earnings. As stipulated in the 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, in Pakistan, working women with high levels of literacy skills earned 95% more than women with weak or no literacy skills, whereas the differential was only 33% among men. Educated women are empowered to take a greater economic role in their families and communities, and they tend to reinvest 90% of what they earn into their families.”
Read more

“We define women’s economic empowerment as the transformative process by which women and girls go from having limited power, voice, and choice at home and in the economy to having the skills, resources, and opportunities needed to access and compete equitably in markets and the agency to control and benefit from economic gains.”
Read more

Education:
Even with interruptions in schooling due to Covid-19 lockdowns, we were able to make progress through our primary and trade schools: 

• 13 Primary schools started
• 7 Trade schools started
• 700+ Students enrolled in schools
• 22 Teachers employed

Covid-19:
During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we have been able to partner with our sewing students, teachers, and other professionals to bring aid to families in crisis:

• 5,000+ Masks made and delivered to families in brickyards
• 3,000 People received 3-6 months worth of food through 3 large food drops
• 1 Mobile medical site was organized and sent to one of the villages we work in to provide masks and testing for symptoms of covid-19

 
Anna’s House:
With your help, we were able to get Anna's House—our first restoration home—up and running:​

• 4 Families moved into Anna's House
• 300 People were freed from brickyards and/or given legal aid

Ending Bonded Labor​

We are constantly searching for new and innovative ways to make the brickyards in Pakistan profitable without relying on human slavery for production. We aim to invest in good people and good methods to ensure brickyards are run in a way that is beneficial to the brickyard owners and their employees, without the use of inhumane labor practices. Ultimately, we aim to buy a brickyard to run a prototype system, modeling a more efficient and humane way of making bricks!
 In the long term, this means we'll be changing the very heart of how brick making is done, creating desirable jobs with fair wages, and investing in communities from the ground up, implementing real change.

Investing in Humane Brickmaking 
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We have had the opportunity of talking with hundreds of brick kiln owners, which has helped us to recognize some of the systemic problems keeping bonded labor intact. A key component to seeing this destructive system end requires the introduction of technology to replace inhumane1 labor.  We all know machines have the ability to significantly reduce human labor. In most modern countries we have become accustomed to tractors, power tools, and hydraulic machinery, but many underdeveloped countries have yet to make the transition to machinery.  Why? There are several reasons, including discrimination, lack of education, and greed. As education is becoming easier to access, change is happening to the world systems. We believe we can bring positive change to the way bricks are manufactured, and for the sake of the children, we must.

Leading Brickmaking Innovation

Our friend Syeda Ghulam Fatima has successfully run three brick kilns without slave labor. Syeda is best known for her work as a human rights activist in the brick kilns of Pakistan. She is the recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award and is now known around the world for her work to end bonded labor in the Middle East & Asia. Having been shot and stabbed while attempting to rescue bonded laborers, she knows firsthand the brutality of bonded labor. With over thirty years of experience fighting to end slavery, she has made several significant milestones, such as the legal rights to emancipate bonded labor, and advanced strategies to end it. (Learn more here) In spending some time with Syeda and listening to her team’s strategy, we have confirmed that the solutions are simple and a collective effort will result in change. The use and demonstration of more efficient technology is the way forward.
 
Investment in Humanity
 
If creating jobs, humane systems, and ending bonded labor through investing in socially conscious brick-making technology interests you, we would love to hear from you and discuss opportunities to invest in these innovative businesses. Starting humane brick-making factories is more than just a business investment. It’s an investment freedom for people who deserve a future, in local business and economy in small villages, and in creating systems that are far better for the environment than the current brick kilns. If you would like further information or discussion, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: contact@allpeoplefree.com.

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Give the Gift of Innovation

Beyond brickmaking, this Holiday season, we have a few ways you can contribute to helping those formerly enslaved in the brickyards find ways to start their own businesses and learn skills that will contribute to building a sustainable future for themselves and their families. From trade school tuition to sponsoring a small business, the options below are all ways to help give someone an opportunity to make a living outside the brickyard.
How to Give the Gift of Innovation:​

• Sponsor one month of trade school tuition for one student for just $25
• Buy a sewing student a sewing machine for $75
• Sponsor a new food cart business for a trade school student for $300
• Sponsor a new rickshaw business for a trade school student for $1500

​At the beginning of 2014, I told my parents that I no longer wanted to work making bricks, that since I was their only daughter, they must think about my future. They agreed. Then, in June of that year, my mother noticed breast pain and on the way to the hospital she and my father had an accident on their motorcycle. My father was injured so badly he was not able to work and the test my mother received showed that she had a tumor and needed surgery. For a while, we didn’t take her condition seriously, though she was on medication. And my father could not work the same as he did before. We wanted to be free so we worked so hard. 

My mother’s condition worsened, she was in so much pain and getting worse by the day. The doctors said she had breast cancer and needed surgery but working as slaves, we could not afford the treatment. In 2017 my father borrowed money from the brickyard owner for my mother's surgery, and we prayed every day for her healing. Her surgery was a success! Eventually my mother was able to start work again and my father could help bring us clay.

In May 2020, Brother Suleman with All People Free came to visit us and we told him about our circumstances. He made a way for us to leave the brickyard and live in Anna’s house. Now I have started studying again at Anna’s House and I’m learning to sew. Soon we will begin learning to sew Bible covers, ladies purses, and clutches. We feel that God has seen our pain and heard our prayers for freedom.

​Trade Schools for Girls 
 
Young women in the brickyards are particularly vulnerable to abuse, violence, persecution, and trafficking. With that in mind, we have begun opening all-girls trade schools to provide a safe, practical educational opportunity for young women to find a path out of the brickyards.
 
Your gift of education will actually change lives, ensuring the next generation has the freedom to choose their future. 

How to Give the Gift of Education:
 

• Educate a child for a semester for just $25
• Educate a child for a year for $50
• Educate an entire classroom for a month for $250
• Educate an entire classroom for a year for $2500​

August 28th, 2020, the 58th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream" speech.  Millions across the globe will be marching in hopes that this generation will further realize King’s dream, echoing one of the chants, “I can’t breathe.”

At any given point in history there are certain words & phrases that give a name to the thing we are going through.  They give voice to the soul of a community or a nation. The words, “I can’t breathe,”  has become one of those statements for many.  It is both a cry of mourning and a cry of outrage for those reeling from the racial injustice of black men and women who have been wrongly struck down by corrupt law enforcement in America.  Some of those names are Eric Garner, Javier Ambler, Manuel Ellis, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, Jacob Blake. 

When these words are spoken you can almost feel the bass notes; it’s as if they are strumming inside.  Mostly, people are breathless at the sheer terror of what the words represent: human life being wrongly strangled by corrupt law enforcement officers who have sworn an oath to defend and protect.  Of course, as strong as these words are, they don’t resonate the same with everyone.  There are many different perspectives: some are racist, some can only see the hijacking of a news cycle by a political agenda of what they refer to as the left, and others are unsure of what to do with it all.  Even if you don’t agree with the movement of people who are frustrated with racial inequality, you can’t neglect how important these words have become to many.   
Breath is something none of us should take for granted. 

The first time I stepped foot in a brick kiln I literally “could not breathe.” It was over 100 degrees outside as we approached a smoke stack positioned in the center of the brick kiln where hundreds of men, women, and children were hand-making bricks in the clay and carrying them to the 900 degree pollution-excreting machine.  The wind was blowing. Open coal being burned without filtration had put a black smog in the air so thick it seemed like you could climb on it.  It  felt like I was sitting in a small room with a diesel engine, its overwhelming presence opposed all that is natural in creation as it sucked the oxygen out of the air.  Having traveled the world, nothing I have experienced has come close to this. Yet, for millions of people who call brick kilns their home, they have never been able to truly breathe.

As a result, brick kiln workers don’t stand a chance against lung infections.  In March 2020 after speaking to a group of more than 500+ brick kiln workers, my friend (who is medically trained) and I were asked to provide medical attention to more than 20+ infants clearly showing signs of lung infection. We did all we could to help them, but how do you treat lung infections when the air is filled with the black smog of open coal?  You can’t.  These precious people are forced to work and live in this environment with little hope of change.
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We are here to say that there IS hope. All People Free is on a mission to liberate those who are trapped in this system of oppression called bonded labor. Modern day slavery still exists, and it needs to come to an end.  
Do all people deserve to breathe fresh air as free people?  We think so. Please join us today in helping liberate, educate, and invest in sustainable change for women and children in the brick kilns.  Join us in helping restore their hope and their breath.

In the midst of Covid-19, we have seen some amazing acts of courage and comradery that are giving us hope.
All People Free has made temporary shifts in focus to be able to respond to the immediate needs of the families we normally support through education, skills training, and small business loans. Our team has quickly risen to the occasion, putting every effort into caring for those most vulnerable during this time. Here’s some things we’ve been able to do:

• Our sewing students have made over 3000 masks to be distributed to families to help them stay healthy through the spread of the virus. 
• Our teachers and partners began making sanitizer to be distributed to those in the brickyards who can’t access or afford these basic sanitation supplies. 
• Our team organized mobile testing for Covid-19 symptoms and simultaneously distributed masks in one village, and we hope to see that duplicated in more villages soon. 
• With your help, we’ve delivered food to 20 families and we hope to quickly increase that number to 400 in the coming days. 
• Through all of these efforts, we’ve been able to continue providing support and work to our partners and teachers and we are so honored to work alongside them during these times.
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To learn more about what we are doing in response to Covid-19, or to donate, click below.

Covid-19 requires the best of us, and I do mean to say us. While many are confined to our homes, there is a deep sense that we are all in this together.  Nations are uniting, medical facilities are merging, and competing suppliers are working together to fill the most pressing needs.  We are more aware than ever that we are all connected through the pandemic that is facing our world. Together, we will not only come through the challenges that face us, but we will be better because of them!

At All People Free our work is to end slavery for those stuck in the brick kilns. We are clearer on that mission now than ever before.  We believe with your help we will see slavery end for millions.

While we continue to support our work in the brickyards, these uncertain times have changed some of the immediate needs we are faced with. The health and safety of our students and families are our first priority. Currently, our schools are on hold to try to slow the spread of covid-19. We are continuing to pay our teachers and partners through this time, and they are doing everything they can to keep themselves and their families safe while also staying connected to the brickyards and families needs.