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On the outskirts of Tiraspol, a small town located in the Transnistrian Republic on the east of Moldova, you may be lucky enough to stumble upon a black metal door, leading to a basement in an old apartment building. Inside you’ll find a shabby basement office teeming with life. This is where Interaction wages a war against human trafficking. The team is small, only about 10 people, but still large enough to have to share computer and desk workspace. If you travel in any of the more modern mini-buses around town, or glance at a passing trolley-bus, or chance to look upon one of the few billboards in the town, you’ll catch a glimpse of their work. One of Interaction’s major initiatives is raising awareness about the danger of human trafficking, a danger posed to both men and women. They have, somewhat miraculously, set up a free hotline available to anyone within Transnistria’s borders. The advertisements serve as part of this public awareness campaign.

Far from receiving support from the local government, Interaction has encountered stiff opposition in fighting this monster of modern-day slavery. Transnistria is not an officially recognized country, and government officials keep a close watch on the only NGO in the region that has even tried to do anything about trafficking in persons – an issue that Transnistrian officials maintain does not exist within these borders. The director of Interaction has encountered the kind of persecution typically reserved for leaders of underground, radical political groups, and has been the target of a campaign intended to tarnish her stellar reputation here and abroad. Interaction offers information and advice to help prevent trafficking, but also rehabilitation and counseling services for victims. They certainly won’t receive help from anyone else here.

As members of the Yearn to Learn Team, we’re heading up a fundraising campaign for Interaction right now. If you’d like to find out more, please check out our application to the “Ending Global Slavery” competition sponsored by Ashoka and Changemakers here. You can register for free, create a profile, and help us by commenting on our application and then voting for it later on. Also, stay tuned to this blog for updates on how to make any financial contributions to Interaction. The website is currently only in Russian, but we are working on creating an English version as well.

We met last night for two hours with the volunteer coordinator and student volunteers from Winrock International. Winrock is an NGO here in Moldova, committed to providing new perspectives to women, alerting at-risk young women about the dangers of human-trafficking, and offering them alternatives through business and entrepreneurial courses. This is all extremely relevent to the Yearn to Learn vision.

Aliona Avetisean is the volunteer coordinator there who makes this all happen. She arranged for us to speak with the core group of volunteers last night, informally, and to find out how they each got involved with the program. It provided us a unique opportunity to see how a successful, well-organized, and dedicated group of young volunteers can truly change lives in Eastern Europe. With limited resources, Winrock travels throughout Moldova and conducts seminars (“discussions”) with at-risk young women, often from villages and vocational schools that are easy targets for traffickers. They each have their own story of how they got involved, but it’s inspiring to see the gratification they find in making a difference in their own country, with people their same age. They come from a variety of academic backgrounds, and lead busy lives outside of Winrock, pursuing their own endevours. But they commit themselves to learning about the dangers of human-trafficking, basic economics and business principles, and they even started their own t-shirt business to gain experience when helping other youth in Moldova!

Although each of them are acutely aware of Moldova’s societal problems (1/4th of the population lives outside the country due to a lack of employment opportunities within Moldova) and government corruption, Winrock volunteers represent the very best of what Moldova has to offer. We were honored to hear their insights and feel a renewed sense of hope and optimism about the future here, as well as the possibilities in store for Yearn to Learn!

It feels so great to be back on Eastern European soil. After a crazy adventure in getting here – Los Angeles to London Heathrow, Heathrow to Bucharest, Romania, and then finally an 8-hour bus from Bucharest to Chisinau, Moldova – Jaron and I have been trying to throw ourselves into the great humanitarian aid work that is going on all around this city. Chisinau is a beautiful city, clean and lively, with big trees and a surprising amount of variation in the architecture. The major capital of Moldova, this is also the financial center of the country. The villages scattered throughout the rest of this country, wedged between the Ukraine on the east and Romania on the west, add up to making Moldova the poorest country in Eastern Europe, and one of the poorest in the world. But you’d never know it from Chisinau.

We’ve been working with Amnesty International here, helping them get ready for some major events to raise awareness among Moldovans about disturbing human rights violations in Africa. Additionally, I met with a volunteer coordinator at Winrock yesterday, and we are going to start working with their core set of volunteers next week. Winrock receives its funding from USAID and is dedicated to curbing human trafficking through educational outreach programs, both for former victims but also targeting young people outside Chisinau who may be at risk. Many human trafficking victims come from impoverished circumstances and are often tricked into believing that they are going overseas to earn money in a restaurant or hotel, and that they will be free to return with enough money to help their sick family members or pay for their children’s’ education. These stories are nightmares that really happened. Winrock is working to prevent them from becoming realities.
We also have our first meeting with the International Office for Migration (IOM) on Monday, another organization dedicated to fighting human trafficking in the region. We’re excited to contribute in any way we can, and learn more about what these organizations can teach us for future Yearn to Learn endeavours.

That’s all for now, but I’m sure we’ll be writing more next week!