Kiln workers’ kids get new school| Cathnews India

Published Date: March 9, 2010

Tags: brick kiln, informal classes, religious, School, workers

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St. Luke’s Primary School

For almost a decade, some children of brick kiln workers in Lahore archdiocese attended informal classes under a banyan tree.

Now, thanks to a small Religious congregation, they are finally able to attend formal classes in a proper school building.

“For 10 years, we ran classes under a century-old banyan tree and at a Catholic church. The staff, alongside the children, endured all kinds of weather but persevered in their mission,” said Sister Michelle McHale, who heads the Sisters of St. John of God (SJG) community here.

The Irish missioner, who has been working in Pakistan since 1980, was speaking to UCA News at the March 6 thanksgiving Mass to celebrate the opening of St. Luke’s Primary School.

The school, located in Halloki, a village 40 kilometers west of Lahore, is the first formal Church-run school to serve children of brick kiln workers in the archdiocese.

The Pakistan Brick Kiln Labor Union estimates that there are about 2 million brick kiln workers in the country, most of them poor Christians. About 35 per cent of them are women and 40 percent are children.
‘You can change the future’

“This place is a blessing of God,” said Auxiliary Bishop Sebastian Shah of Lahore in his Mass homily. “It was a plain ground before but our missionaries saw what others couldn’t and reached out where others couldn’t.”

He urged local people to send their children to the school. “You have experienced a hard life, but you can change the future,” he said.

More than 300 people attended the Mass held in the compound of the newly constructed school building.

Bishop Shah told UCA News that as the brick kiln industry is an “unregistered” one, “workers are paid very low wages.”
“They often take long term loans and spend their lives paying these off. Only education can lift them out of this bonded labor.”

According to Sister McHale, five SJG novices are assisting the school staff.

The school, which is funded by Misean Cara, an Irish based missionary development organization, also holds evening classes for children from grade six upward.

“We started with health outreach programs in the area but later focused on education,” said the nun.

Her congregation, at present, is also running an informal school in a small room in a brick kiln a few kilometers from Halloki.

Presently, hundred of students, most of them belonging to working class families, are studying in informal schools in the suburbs of Lahore archdiocese. Fifteen of these schools are run by a Belgian Capuchin priest.

Catholic rights based organizations have complained that brick kiln workers live “an alienated life” in the country with no identity cards or social security and medical benefits enjoyed by government employees.

Source: Religious open school for kiln workers’ kids (UCAN)

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