You’ve seen her posts in the FTS blog. Now you can read the in-depth account of one woman who decided to take action after discovering that child slavery still exists.
The book is called Facing the Monster: How One Person Can Fight Child Slavery. In it, author Carol Metzker describes her moving journey—both physical and emotional—to understand modern slavery, including visits to FTS frontline projects. It’s a deeply personal story about confronting one of the world’s greatest injustices.
“At close range I had to face a real, roaring monster,” Carol writes, “we could no longer deny the existence of the growing beast.”
Facing the Monster is available online from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. A major portion of the proceeds will help FTS work in India. You can learn more at the Facing the Monster website.
“Metzker’s compelling chronicle inspires us with the amazing work of today’s liberators and the struggle for healing by slavery survivors,” says FTS Associate Director of Programs Ginny Baumann.
“But perhaps the most important part of her story is to show us that because slavery reaches deeply into all our lives, those same connections allow each of us to be part of the liberation story, and of the ending of slavery,” Ginny says. “We can walk with Metzker through her encounters with slavery, and emerge to take a stand.”
When I got the news, I rushed to the site with our local colleagues. I knew that this day would be especially important.
Labor Department authorities were raiding a brick kiln. Freedom was within reach for 27 adults and 24 children.
The raid was triggered by one courageous man, Ram ji (that’s him in the photo below on the right). He had escaped the kiln, and sought advice from a local community vigilance committee (CVC). Part of what a CVC does is to work like a neighborhood watch, keeping traffickers away and strengthening a village’s resistance to slavery.
CVC members explained to Ram ji that everyone could break free from the kiln, if he would go back and prepare them for a rescue. Despite the danger, Ram ji said yes. And his risk paid off.
Freedom came on the hottest day of the season. At first the workers were scared, and when I arrived there was an unusual silence. Many girls and women were hiding in small huts; labor officials were unable to reassure them. When I told the workers that we could ensure their freedom and safety, they gradually began to share their appalling stories. We compelled the authorities to take the whole day to get a statement from everyone (photo below on the left).
“We had been living under the threat of being thrown into the kiln furnace,” one of the women explained. This is what the brick kiln manager would say to them every day.
They had been lured from their village by small up-front payments and promises of good work, but when they arrived at the kiln they were told they were in debt. They were forced into two years of labor without wages. They were beaten almost every day.
As the rescue unfolded, rather than waiting at the kiln for a truck to bring them home, the men and women immediately headed up the road.
As I helped one man pick up his bundle of belongings, he laughed, saying, “I’m running to freedom!”
(That’s him in the photo on the right, literally running to freedom.) For a moment, I could feel what this was like: not wanting to lose the opportunity to run away from slavery.
The silence was broken by the excitement of the children who saw their parents rushing to get on the truck. We lifted the small children up inside. Finally the women began to smile.
As I lifted those kids, I knew they would remember this day, and they would never get on another truck to be taken off to slavery.
We escorted the survivors back to their village, where they have now formed a joint savings group to protect each other from future illegal debts.
Many of the children are back in school and many of the adults now have paying jobs.
The brick kiln has been closed.
This story demonstrates not only the courage of one man, but the importance of community vigilance committees. Without them, the slave who initially escaped, Ram ji, would have had no one to turn to. Without the training that the CVC received from FTS and our local partner, MSEMVS, the villagers would not have known what to do. The brick kiln slaves would have remained hidden in slavery – like so many thousands of others in India.
Editor’s note: FTS has supported 10 similar raids on brick kilns in northern India during the past year. You can read more about our innovative and inspiring India projects on the FTS website.
