Forced or bonded labor is the hook to get desperately poor people of the world in a trap of debt. It is similar to indentured servitude in our history, but different as the laborer never is able to repay the debt and becomes entangled in a web of of misery while trying. This is Pakistan but this happens in India, all through Africa, and other places. People need to be paid a fair wage and be able to start again after paying the debt. With the many people and places embedded with extreme poverty, it is difficult to say which is the most desperately poor, but Pakistan is near the top of the list. . . . . .. Thanks Judy.
NEWS
AUG 19 2015, 3:39 AM ET
Humans of New York Raises $2 Million to End Forced Labor in Pakistan
by M. ALEX JOHNSON
A photographer’s haunting images of Pakistanis trapped in forced labor has triggered an outpouring of donations to help end the illegal practice.
The photographer, Brandon Stanton, usually chronicles everyday New Yorkers on the popular blog Humans of New York. This month, however, he visited Pakistan and posted images and the stories of the people he encountered there — including Syeda Ghulam Fatima, a campaigner against what’s known as bonded labor.
“Throughout rural Pakistan, illiterate and desperate laborers are tricked into accepting small loans in exchange for agreeing to work at brick kilns for a small period of time,” Stanton wrote in one of a series of posts dedicated to the exploitation.
“But due to predatory terms, their debt balloons, growing larger as time goes on, with no possibility of repayment, until these laborers are condemned to work for the rest of their lives for no compensation,” he wrote. “If the laborer dies, the debt is passed on to his or her children.”
The response to the posts — each of them shared or commented upon hundreds of thousands of times — led Stanton to set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise $100,000 for Fatima’s organization, the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, which estimates that 4 million Pakistanis work at the kilns in bonded forced labor.
By early Wednesday — four days after the campaign was launched — more than $2.1 million had poured in.
“Thank you to everyone who has opened their hearts and donated to our cause,” Fatima said in a statement Tuesday. “I struggle to find the words, I don’t think I have the words to tell you how grateful we are. …
“Our responsibility now is to honor what you have trusted us with, and we will. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we want to build a real freedom center in Lahore, where we can work on not just releasing families but rehabilitation,” she said. “We want workers to be treated with the rights they deserve as citizens.”
This Is Bonded Slavery in Pakistan !
images are from Humans of New York
so sad! When living elsewhere I became fast friends with the workers and it is sad! I loved them as family!
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They are beautiful people!
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Reblogged this on Oyia Brown and commented:
Off topic: have you read The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye?
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Thanks for the reblog. No I am not familiar with the book but will look it up. Many thanks!
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Reblogged this on SometimesBipolar.
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Thanks for the reblog! Happy weekend!
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You’re very welcome! It’s very important to raise awareness for us to really appreciate what we have and wish or help others to have a better quality of life and respect human rights every day. Thank you, happy weekend to you as well!
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So important! So much of prejudice is lack of experience and knowledge! Thanks. . .
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Reblogged this on ' Ace Friends News ' and commented:
http://flip.it/D9qq4
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