Aaron Hutchings, a resident of Idaho, found himself deeply moved upon arriving at a brick factory in Pakistan this past January. A devout Christian, Hutchings recounted to News Media his astonishment at witnessing children laboring under the blazing sun, bound to arduous work as a means to settle family debts that, in some cases, spanned generations.
Within mere hours of his arrival, Hutchings took the extraordinary step of settling the debts of two enslaved Christian families, leading them towards freedom and effectively ending what he described as a “curse that they’ve had for hundreds of years.”
Emma Hall, a researcher focusing on persecution with the charity Open Doors U.K. and Ireland, shared with News Media that approximately one million Christians in Pakistan are trapped in forms of slave and bonded labor. This staggering number could represent up to 30% of the Christian population in the country, which, according to the 2023 census, stands at 3.3 million, making up 1.37 percent of Pakistan’s total population.
After liberating a family of Pakistani Christians from their debts, Aaron Hutchings was photographed embracing the newly freed laborers. (Photo courtesy of Aaron Hutchings)
Hall explained that “extreme poverty forces many desperate families to accept advance loans, known as peshgri, to meet urgent and basic needs. This often traps them in cycles of debt bondage, where the repayment structures are designed to make escape extremely difficult.”
Emmanuel Hernandez said he was shocked when he first heard that Christians in Pakistan were living in debt-based enslavement in Pakistan’s brick-making industry. After traveling to Pakistan to meet the woman who would later become his wife, Hernandez witnessed bonded laborers at a brick factory for the first time.
“Never in my life have I seen such hopelessness,” he told News Media. “At that moment, I committed myself to rescuing one family a year for the rest of my life.”
In January 2025, Hernandez started the nonprofit Project Jubilee. He says that it is “by the grace of God” that people have already donated enough through the nonprofit to save 300 Pakistanis from slavery.
GRAHAM FAMILY RESPONDS TO GLOBAL CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS WITH $1.3M DEFENSE FUND AND URGENT CALL TO ACTION
Born into bonded labor in Pakistan, children must flip bricks in the hot sun outside of Lahore, Pakistan. (Courtesy: Aaron Hutchings. )
Though Project Jubilee will save any bonded slave, regardless of race or faith, Hernandez said that “98% of the people we rescue are Christians, and that’s because they’re second-class citizens” in their country.
The average cost to help one family is about $8,500, Hernandez said, because Project Jubilee recognizes that slaves needed more than debt relief to escape the cycle of bonded labor.
“Our goal is for them to succeed in life and make sure that they never go back,” he explained. To accomplish this, Hernandez and his team pay lawyers to take care of all applicable paperwork, and help each family with two months of rent and food. They also get families in touch with a local minister, pay for children to attend school and purchase every family a tuk tuk, a motorcycle taxi, which they can use to create income.
He said that in most cases, factory owners are grudgingly accepting of letting slaves go after their debts are paid off. But in some cases, he says owners have put a cap on the number of families Hernandez’s group can free in a month, or told them that they’re “never allowed to come back again.”
A family of brickmakers speak with American Christian Aaron Hutchings before learning they will be freed from their debt. (Courtesy: Aaron Hutchings.)
Hutchings found Hernandez’s online profile in late 2025 and messaged him, asking to be part of his effort. Retired from the IT world, Hutchings said he is “just a normal guy who wanted to do something…to help people.”
After a short conversation over the phone, Hernandez invited Hutchings to come along to a trip to Pakistan in January. Hutchings agreed. It was during this visit that Hutchings freed two families and reported he “just got hooked.” He admits that the process is highly emotional. “It changes an entire family’s future for generations,” he explained.
Hutchings said that it is especially impactful to witness the change that freedom brings to children. “We get to ask them, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?” Hutchings said. “They probably haven’t even really thought about that. They’re [thinking] ‘I’m going to be a brick worker for the rest of my life, just like my parents.’”
Hutchings started his own nonprofit, Intentional Faith Foundation, which he now uses to collect donations from people who want to help free more slaves.
Christians demanded justice during a protest in Islamabad condemning attacks on churches in Pakistan on August 20, 2023. Pakistan is one of the top 10 worst countries for Christian persecution, according to a new report. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)
Just months after his first journey, Hutchings returned to Pakistan in May to free an additional ten families. After video of his visit went viral, Hutchings said that his nonprofit raised enough funds to save another family from enslavement.
The practice of bonded slavery was outlawed formally in Pakistan in 1992, Hall says, but “enforcement remains weak.” Discrimination extends beyond the bonded labor environment, with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noting in 2025 that there were “recent and escalating attacks against religious minorities” in Pakistan, including Christians.
During his recent visit, Hutchings learned that securing housing was difficult, with many landlords refusing to rent to Christians. Eventually, a Pakistani Christian group working with families was able to find housing and jobs for parents, and located a teacher for the children who were largely illiterate.
After paying the debts of a family of Pakistani Christians, Aaron Hutchings embraces a newly-freed brick laborer. Courtesy of Aaron Hutchings. (Courtesy: Aaron Hutchings.)
In a 2023 report, Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights released a series of recommendations for diminishing the pain that bonded labor brings to approximately three million Pakistanis. In her introduction, the group’s chairperson stated, “It is deeply appalling that in the 21st century, slavery persists in the form of bonded labor.”
Among its recommendations are forbidding children from laboring in brick kilns, helping laborers access justice and creating unions for collective representation. They suggest registering all brick kilns, increasing the use of automated machinery, and encouraging brick purchasers to buy bricks from kilns “that provide a safe and decent working environment.”
Representatives of the Pakistani government did not respond to News Media’s questions about the enforcement of laws against bonded labor, or about the treatment of Pakistani Christians. Neither Hutchings nor Hernandez reported having complications with the Pakistani government when working to free brick kiln laborers.
For Hutchings, the work has been transformative. “Looking back, it is hard to see any of it as random. I believe God’s hand was in it from the beginning, and even though we were doing all of this to show Jesus’ love towards these people, we ended up receiving more than we gave.”
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