The Brick Factories

Monday, February 29, 2016

The Brick Factories

On Monday, our team went to the first of four brick factories that we will visit throughout the week. We handed out 25 pounds of rice to each family, a supply that should last them about a week. We also performed a short skit presenting the Gospel. We followed the skit with a dramatic reading of John 3:16 (Thanks Linda Treydte!)

I have never seen such extreme poverty. The laborers and their families work and live at the brick factories. They earn meager wages, barely enough to survive. In effect, these workers are indentured servants. One AIM staffer told me that the owners of brick factories treat their workers and families like cattle. Given the living quarters I saw today, I believe it. In fact, most horse stalls in the US would make more suitable living quarters than the “homes” at the brick factory. I was told that we visited one of the nicer places. The owner of this factory is willing to allow AIM and Rahab’s House to visit and deliver rice. He has allowed them to install a well so that they have clean water. (Prior to the well, the people just made use of water in ditches, etc.) The church hopes that they can soon install latrines at the brick factory. Without latrines, you can imagine what it is like during the rainy season, when it floods.

The brick factory outreaches factor prominently into AIM’s strategy, as I see it. The children of these families are extremely vulnerable to exploitation because of their family’s desperate economic situation. By alleviating some of the economic distress, the hope is that they can prevent brick factory children from being sold by their families.

Each day, the Disciples at Rahab’s House travel to brick factories and bring the children to the church for Kid’s Club. They receive a snack and take part in a VBS-like experience. This creates a safe place for this children to go and allows AIM to have relationships with these families. If a child suddenly disappears, AIM will learn about it and can take appropriate action.

Some of the children from the brick factory even attend school at Rahab’s House.

The most effective way to combat child sex trafficking is not by rescuing girls once sold, but by preventing them from ever being sold into sex trafficking in the first place. And the brick factory outreaches are one important way to accomplish this goal.

I must say, I am so impressed with this strategy. I can easily envision how it is possible to end the horrors of child sex trafficking in the community of Svay Pak through the church’s acts of compassion, Kid's Club, educational opportunities, and the spread of the Gospel. It is an honor to be part of the team from NewSong Church that is playing a small, but monumentally significant role in bringing about this transformation.