Family of slaves has been freed! All Glory to Our Lord! One more family waits-please pray!

Thank you to those who prayed and helped free this family of slaves! All glory to the Lord. 

Thank you Pastor Tahir for your prayers and heart to free the slaves.  YOUR help is priceless as are YOUR prayers and generosity in setting captives free in the name of Jesus! 

We ask you to pray for one more precious family who are our brethren in slavery now in Pakistan in 2022. More are in slavery in the earth today than ever before in history! YOUR prayers are invaluable in being a part of the CMM global family in helping free many from slavery over the years.  

Pray for this next family needing prayers and YOUR generous help to be free at last! We need $2,500.00 USD to buy them out of slavery.  YOU can make an eternal impact for this precious Mother and children to be free and live a life of hope, joy and fulfillment of all the Lord created them for. 

Pray and give at http://cmm.world (add memo line for 'Rapid Response.')

Since August of 2021 YOUR prayers and financial help have freed over 130 precious lives from the horrid conditions of slavery.  

We thank our long-term dear friend Pastor Tahir S. for his unending love and faithfulness in rescuing many precious lives.  

 Pray and ask the Lord about supporting ongoing living expenses and special Easter gifts for these precious fellow brethren celebrating their new freedom from tyranny and slavery.)

Pray and give at http://cmm.world (add memo line for 'Rapid Response.')

If you want to know more after you read about these two current families we will free with YOUR prayers and help, scroll down to the bottom of this post to learn more.    

Additional information provided by UCO Pakistan:

Bricks are still made by hand in Pakistan—just as they were in Britain in the 19th century—and those who work in the brick fields are little better than slaves to hard labour. Many of them are Christians and among the poorest of the poor.

Brick kiln labourers work long hours in back-breaking, dangerous conditions. Whole families—even small children—work all day to make bricks by hand. From before dawn and in the blistering heat of the sun they then stack the bricks to be baked in huge mud ovens. If they manage to make 1,000 bricks a day they receive about £2 / $2. Demeaning work for pitiful rewards

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As bricks cannot be made during the rainy season, most workers are deep in debt to the manager, who is eager to advance them small loans that bind them to the kiln for life. It is a cruel slavery from which they can never escape. “If I could pay my debt,” said one worker, “I would run away from here.” To escape is to invite swift and sometimes violent revenge from the kiln owner.

Such degradation and absolute poverty is hard for us to imagine, yet thousands of Christians face this bleak future. UCO Partner Together with 10.40/Impact is dedicated to lifting the hopes of the poor—supporting Through B.T.S  Brick To schools in the conviction that free education, based on Christian values, will restore hope to the community.

 

Poverty!

60% of Pakistan’s population lives on less than £2 a day and 23% on less than £1.Minority groups and poverty

For the Christian and Hindu minorities, due to their origin and marginalised status, the percentages are much higher. No official statistics are available.

At the creation of Pakistan as a homeland for Muslims, most Hindus fled east to India. A small remnant stayed in Pakistan, hoping to continue to live peacefully as before. Many are desperately poor tribal peoples in the southern desert or northern mountains, isolated and neglected in Muslim Pakistan.

Christians fared no better. Coming mainly from the lowest strata of the social order, they have been increasingly marginalised and isolated, their privileges withdrawn. A devastating blow was struck when the Government nationalised many of the Christian colleges and schools in 1972. Christians have few opportunities for education or progress in modern Pakistan.

Poverty’s unpleasant companions

• Many poor families send their children to work to bring in any small amount of money to feed the family. Children, some even below the age of 10, work with their parents in the brick kilns and carpet factories.
• Minority communities are open to severe exploitation, and many end up unemployed, become drug addicts or are abused in the sex trade.
• Many Christians live in villages or in city slums, where minority communities live together largely for their own security.
• Deeply entrenched social prejudice makes success in business very hard for the minorities.
• Of the 5 million Christians in Pakistan, half are below the age of 20: that’s 2.5 million children, most of whom have never had access to an education.

Poverty is much more than lack of money.

“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.”

World Bank

Poverty is “more dangerous than terrorism”.

Little consideration is given in Pakistan to the special needs of the disabled and the vulnerable.

Sadly disability still carries a stigma and families often regard disabled children as a liability.  Children with disabilities are often left neglected at home; or they may end up begging on the streets.

Orphaned children may fare better, thanks to the strong extended family; but where that fails there is no societal safety net available.

The meagre resources of the Government and private enterprise are inadequate to provide disabled or orphaned children with the care that they need.

Children who cannot go to school Many millions of Pakistan’s children never go to school. Why? Millions of Pakistani families are illiterate and have no understanding of the value of education. Poverty means many parents send their children to work to add to the family income. This is also why 50% of children drop out of school after Class 5. There simply are not enough free Government schools for children to attend. The Government’s education budget is too low to meet the needs of an exploding population. Many Government schools are poorly equipped (50% have no electricity, 25% no toilets), teachers fail to turn up or classrooms are dirty and furniture broken. The Government school curriculum is heavily slanted towards Islam, which makes it very hard for Christians to attend. There is serious prejudice against Christian children, who are often looked down on as inferior and untouchable.    Working with and for minorities We are concerned for poor and neglected children regardless of background or religion and our desire is for communities to work together.But our efforts focus on Christian communities, a neglected and exploited minority whose critical needs are not being met, and our close working partners are drawn from among them.. Discrimination The ugly face of discrimination When Pakistan gained independence in 1947, the wish of the founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was that “the minorities in Pakistan will be the citizens of Pakistan and enjoy all the rights, privileges and obligations of citizenship without any distinction of caste, creed or sect”. Succeeding generations have largely forgotten his ideals. The growing influence of fundamentalist Islam and bitter disputes with Hindu India, coupled with institutional injustice towards minority religious groups, have left millions marginalised and deprived of privilege. “Non-Muslims are now forced to live as second-class citizens in their own country, under a system that institutionalised inequality…” Centre for Legal Aid and Assistance and Settlement (2004)