Though Stanton initially set out to raise $100,000, in just three days the campaign has surpassed $1.7 million.
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Raising funds for an organization committed to ending bonded labor in Pakistan. In Pakistan, Syeda Ghulam Fatima has worked tirelessly to fight against the evils of bonded labour in her country.
Bonded labor is basically debt slavery.
Bricks are mainly used around Pakistan because it is cheaper to use than concrete.
Bonded labor is a persistent issue in Pakistan, where employers in the brick industry offer loans to vulnerable, often illiterate laborers. Stanton started to make people aware of this crisis in Pakistan via a series of posts on Facebook.
“It’s like quicksand. They only pay you 200 rupees per 1,000 bricks, and it all goes to them, and the debt keeps growing”, said one unnamed man from Lahore. “And when he dies-the debt is passed on to his children”, wrote Brandon on his website. “The brick kiln owners get together and they sell us to each other”. This system of bonded labor can only exist in the darkness of ignorance. “And the people who own these brick kilns are immensely rich. And they influence the legislature in a way that’s really hard to imagine”, he said.
“Over 20,000 brick kilns operate in Pakistan, supported by millions of workers, and the system is largely underpinned by an extremely close cousin of slavery – bonded labour”, Stanton explained on Facebook.
“When this period of time is done, they go back and say, ‘OK, it’s time to leave.’ And these owners say ‘no, you’ve lived in our house, you’ve eaten our food”.
“I was walking to court to attend a hearing against a kiln owner when suddenly I was surrounded by a group of men”, she said.
Syeda Ghulam Fatima attempts to save locals from forced labour, and has been beaten and shot while trying to help. “Soon my debt will pass on to the next generation”, he said.
To help Fatima reach her goal of, as Stanton puts it, “providing education, legal assistance, and rehabilitation” to these workers, Stanton created an Indiegogo campaign that aims to raise money for the cause (he notes that Fatima’s organization now functions on a very limited budget).
Ms Fatima said she had been attacked and threatened so many times that she said she no longer fears death.
He later posted Fatima’s response: “I don’t think I have the words to tell you how grateful we are”.
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After a recent visit to Pakistan, the project’s founder Brandon Stanton was moved by the plight of the bonded laborers in the developing country.
