Moldova

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe and has a strong orphan presence. We are working with Philip Cameron Ministries which adopted and provides assistance to multiple orphanages in Romania and Moldova. The ministry has also opened Stella’s and Simon’s Houses, which are homes for 16 year old girls and boys who are released from the state run orphanages. The program helps protect them from sex trafficking and the slave trade in Moldova. Moldova has been described as "the engine of the sex industry." Human trafficking is rampant.

At the age of 16, the girls and boys are forced to leave the orphanages, given a few dollars, and a bus ticket to the town they were born in. A few unscrupulous caretakers of the orphanages work with the criminals in the sex industry and alert the sex traffickers when a girl is released. The boys are generally forced into slave labor. They intercept the girls and force them through brutality into a life of drugs and sex slavery and are sold off to countries in Europe, Middle East, Asia, and even the United States which imports around 50,000 children every year. UNICEF estimates that there are a total of 2 million children trapped in the sex trade worldwide.

In addition there are approximately 250,000 Orphans in Moldova who primarily live in State Run orphanages under mostly deplorable conditions. Orphans are considered second class citizens in Moldova and little is done if anything at all to support them. The State run orphanages close between June 1st and September 1st every year. The orphans are sent home to relatives but if none are available they are rented out to people for 11 cents a day by the State. As you can imagine this places them in hard labor or worse physical harm.

Recently the State has turned over the Cupcui Orphanage to the Philip Cameron Ministry to operate. PCM has totally gutted and remolded the Facility and it should be open soon. This will be the First Christian run Orphanage in Moldova and along with Stella’s 2, Stella’s 3, and Simon’s 1 will be operated and totally funded by the Philip Cameron Ministries. There are multiple opportunities to serve in Moldova on upcoming mission trips. Our next trip is scheduled for April 6 – 13, 2011.