For women in brickyard communities, opportunities for earning an income outside the brickyards are difficult to come by. In these conditions, modern slavery is perpetuated by keeping wage workers trapped in a cycle of debt and work. Working long hours in the brickyards provide little in the way of transferable skills, and opportunities to gain these skills are difficult to access. These conditions prevent workers, including women, from attaining economic mobility and leaving the brickyards for good.

Through our trade schools, we hope to change that reality and empower these women to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities in new ways. Throughout the world, trade school jobs provide a stable source of income and opportunity for economic mobility.  Unfortunately, schools in the Middle East, Asia, and other regions where brickyard work is common, women are excluded from these trades and the vital economic possibilities they provide. That’s why we see our vocational schools as an effective way to fight the conditions of modern slavery.

​Trade schools provide the opportunity for us to empower the women in the brickyard communities to help provide for their families in a new way. By learning a trade, they are set up to begin a sustainable business to provide for their family’s future outside the brickyards. Empowering women in any community has the ability to significantly increase the economic potential of the whole community, benefiting not only the women and their families, but the community and culture as a whole.