Freedom Friday: 150 men, women, & children set free!

A woman smiles as she readies to return to her home village after living for months as a slave.

A woman smiles as she readies to return to her home village after living for months as a slave.

This is an amazing story of rescue coming out of IJM from this past month that I just had to share with you.

CHENNAI, INDIA – Today, nearly 150 children, women and men are celebrating freedom, rescued from slavery this week outside Hyderabad, India. More than 100 women and men – plus seven children as young as 3 years old – received official release certificates emancipating them from slavery in a brick factory.

The men and women shared how they had been physically beaten and forced to work 18 to 22 hours a day – sleeping for an hour or two and then resuming their back-breaking work in the brick kiln. A pregnant woman told how she had pleaded for rest when she was pregnant; instead, she was kicked by her manager. One man had raw wounds so deep that the bone showed through. Continue reading