Yaqoob had to take out a loan from his employer – the brick-kiln owner – after bad weather caused the ceiling to fall in at the one-room home where he lives with his wife Haleema and their three children. He struggled as repayments for the money he needed for repairs were deducted from his weekly wages, and worried as the interest on the loan “increased every passing day”.

Now Barnabas has paid his accrued debt, equivalent to $824. Yaqoob can buy healthier food for his family, save some money from his wages – and even build another room on their house.

His daughters have been able to start school again as Yaqoob can afford their school fees. His son was already receiving a free and good quality education at a school established and supported by Barnabas.

Yaqoob’s family are among 1575 impoverished and hard-working Christian families that have so far been freed from their debt through the generous donations of Barnabas Aid supporters.

His story is typical of the pressures facing our Pakistani brothers and sisters.

Almost like slavery

Brick-kiln workers are low paid and families live at survival level. If someone falls sick, or another family crisis occurs, they have to take a loan from the brick-kiln owner.

Interest on the loan is then deducted from their wages and this can go on for years, even generations. The families have to subsist on reduced wages and, as long as the debt remains, the whole family remains bonded to the brick kiln, unable to leave and get another job. Instead of attending school, children must help their parents to make bricks.

Many Christians are illiterate and unable to keep track of their repayments or do anything to improve their position. It is almost like slavery.

Marginalisation of Christians in Muslim-majority Pakistan is the root cause of this desperate situation. Christians are mostly restricted to the hardest, dirtiest and lowest-paying jobs.

Barnabas Aid works to pay off these long-term, even generational, debts. It is a wonderful real-life picture of the spiritual reality that the sin debt of each believer has been paid in full through the finished, saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Opportunities now

Like Yaqoob, the hard-working brick-kiln families take full advantage of the opportunities afforded to them by the repayment of their debt – often through further projects funded by Barnabas.

Barnabas helps freed brick-kiln families by providing lessons on how to maintain family budgets.

We also support more than 40 primary schools and five adult literacy classes, all specifically for Christian brick-kiln families. “Now I am very happy and thankful to Barnabas Aid,” said Zeeshan, just one of the hundreds of young Christians at a school for the children of brick-kiln families. “God bless you always.” The schools and adult classes all include Bible teaching as a core part of their instruction.

Monthly food parcels are given to families in particular need. We also fund mobile health clinics that bring free medical treatment and health care advice to Christian brick-kiln families. A Pakistani church leader told us that Muslims who see this work for our brothers and sisters are impressed that “a Christian organisation is providing free health care services to the poor, needy and deserving.”

Perhaps most wonderfully, many of the freed families have voluntarily and joyfully set aside a small portion of their wages, low as they are, to donate to a “revolving loan fund,” which is used to repay the debts of other bonded Christian labourers. Having been desperately poor, helpless and dependent for so long, the freed families are thrilled to be in a position to help other believers.

More work to do

There remain many Christian brick-kiln workers in Pakistan who are trapped by the debt they have been forced to take on. With your help and God’s grace, we intend to free many more of our brothers and sisters from the oppression of bonded labour.

To learn more about the work of Barnabas Aid in Pakistan and elsewhere, visit barnabasaid.org