This is a brickyard in a refugee camp in Pakistan. Many families have children working here. The children start working at 2 in the morning. They work until 2 p.m., when they take lunch and rest until 4 p.m. Then they must work another two hours, until 6 p.m. All together they work 14 hours a day. In one day a child can make about 2,000 bricks. The child gets 260 rupees, or about 4 dollars. This is just barely enough for a family to live on. And so everyday they have no choice but to return to the brickyard and continue making bricks.
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| MULTAN, PAKISTAN |
As the sun burns down on a dusty, open-air brick-making factory on the outskirts of Multan, Pakistan Gabir (not his real name), 12, squats on the ground, picking up a lump of mud with his bare hands. Gabir’s hands, feet and clothing are covered with the evidence of his work.
The lump is about the size of a large loaf of bread, and it’s heavy for a child. He carries it over to his father, who uses a mold to make brick shapes that lay in long slithering lines on the ground to dry. Later, donkeys carry the dried bricks to the kiln for firing. “I don’t like working in the hot sun,” says Gabir. “I get very tired.”
‘My job is difficult’
For eight and half hours of work each day, Gabir earns 50 Rupees, or about 60 cents. Working six days a week, he uses his small hands to prepare and carry enough mud for 600 to 700 bricks daily. There is no shade from the unrelenting sun.
In the evenings, Gabir comes back to work for an hour to prepare mud for the next day’s brick-making. He has to make up to 40 trips to fetch water from a nearby lake and carry it back to his station in a metal bucket.
“My job is difficult and hard to do, and I don’t like it,” says Gabir, who works at the factory for the past year alongside his father. “I’ve run away from the brick kiln to home many times.”
Gabir has to work to help his parents and two siblings survive. Says his father, who was introduced to the brick factory by his own father 20 years ago: “I earn very little. That’s why I thought if my son worked, too, then I would get enough money to support my family. We are just getting by.”
Having never been to school, Gabir and can neither read nor write. “I’d like to go to school,” he says. “If I went to school, my life would be better.”
Gabir’s story is the story of most of the children in Multan. Pakistan. Women of Worth International has provided Bibles, books and uniforms for 50 kids. It only takes $10.00 to buy a Bible and seven school books. For another $10.00 the child can have a new uniform. The uniform is the first new clothing they have ever had.
The children are cramped into a tiny room. God has laid it on the hearts of WOW to build these children a school. We are in great need of your help. Together we can make an eternal difference in the lives of these children. To see what their unbelievable day is like watch this video.Source: © UNICEF Pakistan/2011/Francia
| SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS|
"Most of the girls seemed very interested in us and wanted to be touched and loved and hugged. Others sat on the sidelines and watched. Some looking disinterested others looking skeptical."
Our Missionary Team to San Pedro Sula, Honduras consisted of Marilyn Orton, Founder and President of Women of Worth; Alison Roach, Vice-President of Women of Worth, her two sons, Jacob and Joshua; Becky Oswald; Isaac Egewbole, President of Caribbean Life Missions; and David Geovanny Rivera Valle, our Ground Host. We arrived July 27, 2001. We stayed at the Green Frog Inn, a lovely Bed/Breakfast with an excellent host and two wonderful maids who made our stay so comfortable. Continue Reading…