Pakistan

Self-help for Christians in need

Dreams can become reality

120 girls have started sewing school. It happened on May 22 and 23, 2013 in Pakistan, where three more sewing schools were opened. One of the girls is named Soson. Image: Right: Soson is ready to start her sewing training. Her future looks brighter.

By Henrik Due Jensen

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Soson is 21 years old. Her life hasn't been easy until the day she came to a sewing school run by the Danish European Mission. She has been part of the slavery that is still alive and well in Pakistan. Here it is often very difficult for poor Christians to escape the clutches of oppression. In many cases, they are forced to survive by doing menial labor in a brick factory in the extremely hot sun. It can also be work in the homes of wealthy families who exploit their cheap labor for a wage of around $5 a day. It also prevents the girls from going to school.

But Soson has been allowed to attend a sewing school. For the next year, she will be trained as a seamstress along with 39 other girls and women at the sewing school in the village of Bethlehem 5 Chak, 10 km inside the eastern Okara district in the province of Punjab.

Soson's father died a number of years ago, so the income she is likely to earn in the future is quite important. It will enable her to help her mother and siblings have a more bearable life. It is expected that she will earn much more from her newly acquired skills as a seamstress. Families who work in a brick factory earn next to nothing. At the same time, they are usually trapped in debt and unable to defend themselves against the factory owner and his people.

Maybe Soson will be able to help her siblings go to school in the near future and put an end to the negative development. Soson herself says that her life will never be the same: "I feel that my wish has come true now. When I finish my education, my life will not be the same".

Soson is among the 7278 girls who have gained access to a sewing school since 2005 because there were people in Denmark who supported the girls on their way to a dignified life.

Tak

A special thank you to the Jubilee Foundation, which in this case has helped ensure that Danish European Mission could open three more schools and thus give 120 girls like Soson access to a sewing school where they will learn to sew and embroider in a Christian atmosphere, away from the oppression and exploitation that otherwise characterizes the lives of poor girls in Pakistan.