Whereas Broken was the story of Peter’s first visit to the brick kilns in Egypt’s El Saf region, about 100 km south of Cairo, Broken 2 charts Peter’s return to the kilns a year later with film-maker Andrew Telling and Safe Haven for Donkeys CEO Andy Foxcroft and consultant vet Anna Harrison to see how things have changed.
Broken beat 50 films to win the group category of the 2024 MPB Geographical Better World Video Awards.
Peter Egan, a patron of Safe Haven for Donkeys, which has its headquarters in Haywards Heath, says: “It’s a testament to Safe Haven for Donkeys’ heroic efforts that we witnessed enormous change in the treatment of donkeys during my second visit to the El Saf brick kilns. We saw brick kilns who had transformed their welfare standards under the charity’s patient instruction. But it was still heart-breaking to see donkeys continuing to pull the equivalent of a small to mid-sized car hundreds of times a day, every day of the week - a load that’s 10 times their body weight. It’s a tough and endlessly long life of suffering for these poor donkeys - and this film poignantly brings that to life.”
There are approximately 1,000 brick kilns in Egypt, manufacturing building materials to satisfy the country’s housing boom. Due to the availability and cost of machinery, donkeys and mules play an important role in the manufacturing process, namely in moving the sun-dried bricks by cart to the furnaces for firing. The animals carry heavy loads of bricks weighing around 1.4 to 1.6 tonnes (1,400 to 1,700kg) and move at an intense pace, without enough food, water, rest and shelter, in order to prevent unfired bricks cracking in the day's heat.
“These donkeys suffer unimaginable pain due to harness and saddle wounds, beatings, teeth and hoof issues and parasitic diseases spread by flies,” says Safe Haven for Donkeys CEO Andy Foxcroft. “It’s hot and tiring work for the animals who work from 4am till midday with just a half-hour break.”
All this could change if the brick kilns used machinery instead of donkeys to carry out the work. Safe Haven for Donkeys is piloting this with one of the brick kilns in the El Saf region. “If the pilot is successful, we’re determined to persuade other brick kilns to embrace the technology,” says Foxcroft. “Other successful pilots from around the world give us the confidence that it’s possible: we have been in discussion with a charity in India that has successfully replaced bison in sugar factories and donkeys in some brick kilns there. We won’t stop until we’ve eradicated suffering for all the donkeys working in El Saf.”
The 30-minute film is available to watch on YouTube here.
For more information visit https://www.safehaven4donkeys.org/ and to donate visit here.