You're working 14-18 hour days with very little sleep, no freedom, dignity is taken away from
them and that's something nobody should have to endure. We had a number of years ago, two of
the bond laborers escaped from a facility and they were tracked down by the owners of the facility
and brought back and as a punishment for what they had done, their hands were chopped off.
We would go to the government officers and we'd say, sir, there is a bonded labor case and
almost always the response was, there is no bonded labor in my area, what are you talking?
There's a girl who's very afraid, almost unable to walk.
This is Kumar, he was abandoned by his mother and his father was suddenly killed,
orphaned and alone. He was accountable for his parents' debts and at just seven years old,
he was forced into slavery. Kumar remembers a day where he was so ill he couldn't get out of bed.
Immediately, his owner came looking for him.
Kumar was trapped by debt and a slave owner who beat him continuously. He, like so many,
had no remaining hope for a way out.
IJM discovered the horrific conditions in the brick factory where Kumar and others were being
forced to work against their will. And based on their undercover video evidence,
local government authorities and police came alongside IJM to conduct a rescue operation.
The more and more we are doing this rescue, people are getting aware that people are being abused,
there is bonded labor, there is trafficking. Also, the law is going to take its course as well as
perpetrators go behind. When the team arrived in the morning and entered the brick factory,
15 men, women and children were rescued and given their freedom back.
Then, they were each given a certificate to prove that they no longer owe any debts to their former owner.
And one was for Kumar.
After being rescued, IJM placed Kumar in their aftercare program to heal.
You'd ask him a question anytime, no matter what, and he would say,
the one thing I want to do is I want to study. He was clear about that.
And then, they enrolled him in school for the first time.
Today, he is studying to be a social worker, to help those still suffering like he did.
And what we do at IJM is we go look for that lost sheep, that girl that's being abused,
that widow who's been run out of her home. And we will search for her until we find her.
That's how our father has loved us. That's how we are called to love others.
Not to search for them until we've satisfied ourselves. Not to search for them until it gets
really hard, but to go after them until we find them. To be relentless in our love.
Thank you.
