Moldova is a small country between Ukraine and Romania which, when we began work there in 2009 was one of the top countries in the Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report for its scale of Human Trafficking issues.
At the time 18 tourism offices in the country, which were meant to be helping young people travel abroad safely had lost their licenses due to Trafficking offences. Moldova has lost a third of its people across borders, many of them Trafficked.
Never doubt that a small committed group of individuals can change the world, in fact it’s the only things that ever has Margaret Meade
The 4 people who met in the corner of a South of England pub in August 2009 to talk about how to protect children from trafficking, could never of known that just 3 months later they would be standing in front of heads of education and government officials in Moldova’s capital Chisinau to launch their prevention magazine.
Escape magazine was our first response to this issue since we became aware that those least informed of Trafficking and most at risk of exploitation were children aged 14 to 18 in Moldova. Its regular 40 page editions are a vehicle to keep exposing the strategies Traffickers use to recruit whilst investing in the self esteem of vulnerable children. It is far more difficult to exploit a young person who knows who they are.
Our partners in Moldova continue to produce new editions of this magazine to this day, ensuring that a generation of young people become confident contributors to society and become parents and leaders who safeguard their communities.
CBI is committed to long-term strategies, believing they are essential if we are to establish long-term change.