"...and to free those in bondage, and to help those burdened with debt, and for expenditure in the Way of Allah..." (Quran 9:60)
We may believe we live in a free society, yet there are 24.9 million people around the world living in forced labour, and one in four of them are children. Entire families are forced to work in brick kilns and domestic work for wages that cannot even cover daily survival, let alone the crippling debt that traps them. This is modern slavery.
The Freedom Campaign by Al Mustafa Canada aims to end this injustice. We pay off the debt of families trapped in bonded labour and sets them free. One donation breaks a cycle that has held entire families for generations.
Select from single and monthly donations
happens when people give themselves into slavery as security against a loan or when they inherit a debt from a relative. Then, while the worker labours to repay the debt, the employer continues to add on additional expenses.
They are heavily exploited, often doing life-threatening work such as operating kilns, lifting heavy bricks and working in unhealthy conditions. Entire families get trapped in this form of bonded labour, working endlessly for their freedom.
If the person who borrowed the money passes away, the debt is transferred to their children, causing an endless, vicious cycle. Children are also trapped, with 80% of them never going to school.
Your donations can help take a family out of modern-day slavery & help generations to flourish.
The Freedom Campaign targets bonded labour, one of the most widespread forms of modern day slavery. Across Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and parts of Africa, millions work in brick kilns, mills, mines, and factories under conditions that violate basic human rights.
Al Mustafa Canada runs this campaign to free a family from debt by paying off their loan directly to the kiln owner. Once the debt amount is cleared, the family walks free. Many have never known freedom. Neither did their parents or grandparents.
We receive your donations to free a family from debt.
We release funds to our local team who have already identified vulnerable families.
Our team travel to the area and facilitate a meeting between the family and kiln owner, where the loan is paid off and the family is finally free after generations of enslavement.
We send you photos and a message from the family you helped free.
The Freedom Campaign runs a direct, four-step process.
Step 1: Al Mustafa Canada receives your donation to free a family from debt.
Step 2: Our local team identifies families trapped in bonded labour and confirms their debt amount with the kiln owners.
Step 3: The team travels to the site, sits down with the family and the kiln owner, and pays off the loan in full. The family walks free. For many, it is the first time in generations that anyone in their bloodline has known freedom.
Step 4: Al Mustafa sends you photos and a personal message from the family you helped free.
Your donation does not disappear into a fund. You see exactly where it goes and who it reaches.
Entire families have been enslaved for generations due to vicious cycles of debt and poverty.
Kiln owners charge families more for housing than they pay them in wages, ensuring their debt is never paid and they never leave the brickyards.
80% of working children have never been to school. Without an education, children have no chance to find opportunities outside the brickyards.
work such as construction, bricklaying, agriculture or domestic work.
The Freedom Campaign pays off the debts that keep families enslaved in brick kilns and other forms of forced labour, freeing them permanently and giving their children access to education.
These families live in extreme poverty with no property to offer as a guarantee. Banks in developing countries typically require collateral, which these workers do not have.
Their wages are often very low where they barely fulfil their daily need without repaying the original debt. Also, they need to make 1000 bricks a day if they cant reach the target, the kiln owners are used not to pay the whole day of the labour or they pay half. As they were hardly fulfilling their daily need if another tragedy happens, like arranging a marriage, for the medical treatment of any in the family or if there is a death in the family, they need to borrow money from the kiln owner again and this cycle continue for ever.
In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and mostly African countries the bonded labour still flourishes in agriculture, brick kilns, mills, mines and factories. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are forced to work as bonded labourers in brick kilns and agriculture, often suffering extreme exploitation and abuse.
The average debt amount per family is around $2,000. You can contribute any amount toward freeing a family, or cover the full debt to free them entirely.
Yes. The Quran explicitly names freeing those in bondage and helping those burdened with debt as valid categories for Zakat (Quran 9:60). These families are fully zakat eligible.
Islamically they are Zakat eligible as described in the holy Quran as follows, "The alms are meant only for the poor and the needy and those who are in charge thereof, those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and to free those in bondage, and to help those burdened with debt, and for expenditure in the Way of Allah and for the wayfarer. This is an obligation from Allah. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (Quran 9:60)
The debt amount is vary from families to families, some families have debts even more than $2000 and some less than that. Its hard to manage the donation for each family so we have the average donation amount to free a family from the crippling debt.
Once the debt is cleared, the family leaves the brickyard. Children gain the opportunity to attend school, and the family can pursue work and livelihoods on their own terms.
