As a member of the philanthropy team at international equine welfare charity Brooke, I wanted to take a moment to share my firsthand experience of visiting Pakistan in February 2025 to witness the charity’s impact at brick kiln sites where we support vulnerable horses, donkeys, and mules and their owners. The trip was profoundly moving, and I hope this short insight will offer a sense of the realities faced by animals and people alike in these remote and marginalised areas.

The brick kiln industry is vast in Pakistan. Chimneys rise out of the landscape everywhere, marking sites where labour and hardship are hidden from the rest of the world. With a rapidly growing population and an urgent demand for housing in Pakistan, the kilns produce bricks (fired in giant furnaces) that build homes, schools and hospitals. They are essential to the country’s infrastructure, yet they are also among the most unseen and harsh places to live and work.

Life in the kilns is brutally hard. Temperatures soar beyond 50°C in summer. The air is thick with dust, and smoke from burning waste. Men, women and children work long hours to meet impossible quotas, trapped in cycles of debt and poverty. Alongside them are the animals, including horses, donkeys and mules, who carry the weight of this industry on their backs.

During my visit, I spoke with a man whose job is to stoke the furnace with coal around the clock – a gruelling and thankless task. Even in winter, as I stood on top of the kiln, I could feel the heat rising through the soles of my boots. I tried to imagine what it must be like in the scorching summer months, both for the labourers working day and night, and for the animals hauling endless loads of bricks back and forth without rest.

I approached one such donkey, expecting it to shy away. It didn’t. It didn’t react at all. It simply stood there, head hanging low, as if it had already given up. That moment will stay with me forever.

And yet, there is hope.

After visiting several kilns where Brooke was yet to intervene, I was taken to witness conditions in those where we had either completed our work or were in the process of catalysing change (a journey which takes on average three years to bring about sustainable impact). What I saw there was profoundly different: horses and donkeys with healed scars, good body condition and calm, alert eyes. There were clean water troughs, shady shelters and properly fitted harnesses. The owners knew their animals by name and understood the need for rest, hydration and care. I watched a donkey roll joyfully in a sand pit after work – a simple act of relief and dignity that would never have existed without Brooke’s intervention.

I met women who had been trained, empowered and given a voice; some now leading equine welfare groups, managing savings schemes, and teaching their children compassion for animals. I met health workers who told me, without hesitation, that Brooke had taught them how to treat horses, donkeys and mules, and that they were now saving lives. I met brick kiln owners who spoke with pride about how Brooke had helped to improve not only the standard of equine welfare but the whole culture of their workplace.

Brooke’s work is not simply about treating wounds. It is about building knowledge, skills and long-term capacity. It is about breaking cycles of neglect, limited access to education, and poverty. It is about dignity for animals and the people who depend on them to survive.

I returned from the visit deeply inspired to raise further funds for this critical work. The scale of need is immense: Pakistan has approximately 20,000 brick kilns, of which we have reached just 3,000 to-date. Brooke can only extend our reach and impact with help from our incredible family of global supporters. With additional funding we could train more vets, reach more kilns, empower more women, influence more owners, and prevent suffering before it happens. We could grow partnerships with other local NGOs, expand compassion-based training, and ensure that what I witnessed in the best kilns becomes the norm, not the exception. I cannot overstate the difference between a kiln where Brooke has intervened compared to one we have yet to reach.

Brick kiln communities are largely invisible to the world. Suffering takes place quietly, far from media headlines or everyday life as we know it. Brooke is often the only organisation standing alongside these communities, and the only voice these animals have.

I have seen what is possible when Brooke is given the chance to stay, to teach, to build trust and to change lives. I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that you are able help us do more.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this letter. If you would like to find out more, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 07866 267104 or jessica.maybanks@thebrooke.org

Thank you,

Jessica Maybanks

Philanthropy and Partnerships Advisor, Brooke

Brooke | Action for Working Horses and Donkeys