According to the Human Rights Watch, bonded labor is life for over 10 million children in India.
Calcutta alone is home to more than 100,000 street children who know neither mother nor father, love nor care. They are not just numbers or statistics—they are real children. Though nameless and faceless on the streets where they live, each one was created with love and is known by God.
Nine-year-old Lakshmi works in a factory as a cigarette roller.
She tells her sister's story
My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she goes to the bonded labor man, and every night at nine she comes home. He treats her badly; he hits her if he thinks she is working slowly or if she talks to the other children, he yells at her, he comes looking for her if she is sick and cannot go to work. I feel this is very difficult for her.
I don't care about school or playing. I don't care about any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labor man. For 600 rupees I can bring her home—that is our only chance to get her back.
We don't have 600 rupees…we will never have 600 rupees [the equivalent of £7].
It is doubtful they've ever held a toothbrush or a bar of soap; they've never eaten an ice-cream cone or cradled a doll. The child laborers of South Asia toil in fireworks, carpet and match factories; quarries and coal mines; rice fields, tea plantations and pastures, and even brothels. Because they are exposed to dust, toxic fumes, pesticides and disease, their health is compromised; their bodies are crippled from carrying heavy weights. Some are bonded laborers, enslaved to their tasks by family poverty.
The prevalence of malnourishment in India is among the highest in the world and in places nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa. And worse, most have never conceived of a God that loves them.
You have the opportunity to reach into at least one child's life through sponsorship. We can pray for these children and know that our Father hears these prayers. Consider this opportunity to sponsor in light of eternity.
They are the victims of caste, believing that they are worthless and doomed because of their sins in a previous life.
Those among the most poor and need of Asia, children who go hungry every day. More often than not, poverty forces every family member- even the children to labour for even the barest of essentials.
They are the street children roaming the cities. Many Bridge of Hope (BOH) children are treated with less concern and care than animals, doubtful that they've held a bar of soap, eaten an ice cream or cradled a doll.
They are the child labourers who toil in factories, coal mines, tea plantations and pastures.
But Together We're Changing That
Our child outreach, Bridge of Hope (BOH), is going to where these children and their families live, in the slums, villages, and impoverished areas of Asia.
The love of Christ is reaching these children in message and action, and often provide these unreached children with their first experience of the hope that is found in Jesus.
Bridge of Hope reaches out to the family and community of the children. As the children experience God's love, they take the message home to their families and BOH staff often visit homes to demonstrate the love of Christ in practical ways.
