by Kollappalliyil Thankachan, SDB
The long road that crosses the cultivated fields is full of areas in which bricks are made. Many persons work in those zones. They are poor immigrants coming from the neighbouring provinces. There are about 500 brick factories in Pasahaur, in the District of Jhajjar (Haryana), about 60 km from the Capital, New Delhi. They are the main source of brick supply for the northern provinces of the country, but none of these labourers have a brick to build their own house.
During the day, one can see children below 10 years of age working in the furnaces. “We are bitterly struck. Our brain refuses to accept what it sees: very small children, with their tender hands, working under the sun as if they were skilled bricklayers”.
The Salesian house of “Pasahaur Don Bosco” is building a village to help these children. The Salesians want to make a different type of bricks. Bricks of hope for a better future. “We are firmly convinced that the conditions of life of the persons who live in the zone of Pasahaur can improve if we manage to obtain drinking water and to build shelters”, they assert.
The children of Don Bosco commenced a program of sensitization for women and child labourers; they created centres for disadvantaged persons and provide education and assistance to the most needy.
The dream of each child is to spend time where there is peace and joy, where they can learn and have fun. But all this is sometimes prevented by greed and by inhuman attitudes. Bricks have ruined the small hands of many children. Salesians want to build “bricks of hope” instead.
