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While no two Christmas lists are ever the exact same, it’s a sure bet that most kids want the hi-tech staples that have come to define our culture: an iPad, a video game or two, and a new cell phone. But a few kids from India had a different list entirely; they just wanted to be set free from slavery.
And thanks to a recent raid, they got just what they wanted.
In December of 2012, police officers and agents from the child advocacy group Global March for Children smashed through padlocked doors in Delhi and discovered 14 children imprisoned in a sweat shop making Christmas decorations that were set to be sold in the West.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who worked with the task force that liberated the youngsters, said the kids – some as young as 9 – were forced to work 19-hour days in small, dingy basements, without air, food, or care. Furthermore, he noted that some of the children even had lacerations on their bodies because they were forced to work with glass. Of course, those were just the visible scars; every kid also had inner wounds that stemmed from being illegally taken from their families and forced to work in unsanitary conditions.
Representatives from Global March for Children explained how so many of these kids are trafficked away from their homes and into the abysmal work conditions of illegal sweat shops: “gangmasters” in the larger cities of India develop a relationship with a set of parents, earn their trust, and then promise to take their children to a better place where their kids can get health care, an education, and other great opportunities most families can’t afford.
Instead, the children are sold into slavery.
The story of these 14 kids who are now being returned to their families happens to end in joy, but for the remaining 215 million kids the United States Dept. of Labor estimates are still being held in similar conditions around the world, there is no peace or joy this Christmas season.
Fortunately for these 14 kids, rescuers came this Christmas and liberated them from a life of terror and hopelessness, from slavery and bondage. Fortunately for you and me, the Savior of the world came at Christmas to liberate us from sin and shame so that we might have freedom and life.
He’s the best Christmas gift of all.
Click here for the online report.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Children
Christmas
Family
Freedom
Gifts
Jesus
Law
Lie
Police
Rescue
Salvation
Saved
Savior
Slavery
Work
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
