Humans of New York raises over $1.8 million for Pakistan

In just three days Humans of New York (HONY) raised over $1.8 million for a Pakistani non-profit organization.

Brandon Stanton, creator of the famous Facebook page, travelled to Pakistan and has been posting photos and stories of its people.

At one point he encountered Syeda Ghulam Fatima, affectionately known as Pakistan’s Harriet Tubman, a woman who has worked tirelessly to free her people from bonded labor – a modern form of slavery – at the brick kilns.

Fatima’sorganization, The Bonded Labour Liberation Front, helps individuals and families escape brick kiln owners whose violent methods keeps them as indentured slaves.

Pakistan has about 20,000 brick kilns and an estimate of 40 families work in each. They are required to make 1,000 bricks per day. Many of the people came to work there after personal tragedies or crises in which they needed money, therefore agreeing to a small loan in exchange for work.

Overtime the loans grow with interest making it impossible for most to pay them off, which in turn condemns them to work them off the rest of their lives. There’s an estimated 4.5 million people working under bonded labor in Pakistan.

She has helped tens of thousands of people and with the donations made through HONY, she hopes to help millions more.

Over 59,000 people have donated to the Indiegogo campaign, which concludes at the end of the day.