Christmas Appeal 2024 – Centre for Legal Aid Assistance & Settlement

“May God bless you for remembering us,”
says Farzana, her heart overflowing with gratitude.

“Please continue to support my children so they may have a better future.”
Farzana is a ‘bonded labourer’ in a brick kiln factory in Pakistan. Bonded labour is forced work to repay a loan, often under exploitative conditions. The practice has been outlawed in Pakistan since 1992 and was condemned by the United Nations as modern slavery as far back as the 1960s.
2025 has been a tough year for Farzana. Earlier this year, her husband passed away from a heart attack – leaving her alone to fend for her 9 year old son and three daughters aged 10, 8 and 5. Farzana and her husband had been bonded labourers for 15 years prior to his death. Together they worked hard towards their dream that they would one day escape the brick kiln and have a better life.

Christmas Appeal 2023

Now Farzana is left on her own to work to repay the debt – which is the equivalent of just £1,359. It is a small debt by UK standards, but with exorbitant interest rates she knows she will never be able to pay it off. She is condemned to a life of chasing an ever-moving target as the debt spirals. The worry is etched on her face: how will she repay the loan and provide for her family?
It is not uncommon for the children of brick kiln workers to suffer from malnutrition. Farzana’s children are too young for such hard labour – yet every day she must take them to the brick kiln with her, exposing them to harmful emissions that threaten their respiratory health. It is a far cry from the dreams she shared with her husband that

Together we can bring hope this Christmas

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the children would be able to go to school and get a good education.
“My dreams are shattered,” she told us the day we first met her.”
The good news for Farzana is that – thanks to you – CLAAS and our partners are here to help her rebuild her shattered life, giving her hope and a future. With your help, every year we give simple Christmas gifts of food and clothing to families like Farzana’s, so they do not have to face a bleak Christmas. But our support goes further than that: with your support we can help Farzana gain freedom from bonded labour, send her children to school and build a new life.
“Can you make 2026 a better year for Farzana?”
We are asking you, once again, if you will show your generosity to families like Farzana’s by giving a gift this Christmas. Your donation will help her family and countless others stuck in similar circumstances by providing much-needed food and warm clothes this Christmas. CLAAS will be working all year round to bring freedom to Farzana and others like her, but this takes time. Your gift enables families like Farzana’s to take a break at Christmas while the fight for freedom continues.
Thank you for standing faithfully with us.

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