A128187: Life ReVoLve AroUnd Me

•  The government has expressed its belief that the trafficking of women for the sex industries is not a phenomenon that affects Moldova, regardless of the number of Moldovans who leave the country on a regular basis.

•  La Strada Moldova forms one part of the La Strada Network, which comprises nine organizations implementing the La Strada Programme of Prevention of Traffic in Women in Central and Eastern Europe.
•  La Strada Moldova works to educate people about the dangers of traveling abroad for work and about the realities of prostitution and café employment, to prevent trafficking of women, to facilitate media contact and political lobbying, to assist in the safe return of trafficked women, and to provide social assistance and the reintegration of women who have been trafficked and returned home.

•  The International Organization for Migration is also involved in education and prevention campaigns concerning the trafficking of women and works to assist in the safe return of trafficked women to their home countries or to third countries for the purpose of resettlement.
• Within each of this agency’s programs are units that advocate the legal creation of funding for telephone hotlines, information media campaigns, programs to support  education, and victim assistance measures such as community reintegration, resettlement, educational training, and medical and psychological care.

•  such as those in Belgium and the Netherlands,
•  such programs persevere as Eastern Europe melts its borders with a growing influence from the European Union.

•  almost one-quarter of the population now lives below the poverty line.
•  Women account for nearly two-thirds of all unemployed people nationwide, but this rate is as high as 5% or 90% in some regions of the Russian Federation of Moldova
•  In 1996, 87% of Russia’s employed urban residents whose monthly income was less than 100,000 rubles (US$21) were women
• Unemployment, inflation, income differentials, and poverty have increased, and as a result of conflict and economic change, living conditions and access to services have all deteriorated.
• Trafficking is an issue encompassing

• Figures suggest that 30% of all abused women share the information with a family member or friend but only 9% visit a doctor

 “did not necessarily include seeking a better life somewhere else but did include escaping the terrible life they had at home.”

• 1.7% of all children in Moldova receive no education at all or dropped out of school.
• Girls and women are socialized to be less assertive and encouraged to take up gender-specific occupations and to have a successful marriage and family life.
• Moreover, the education system in Moldova has received less and less money from the state in recent years
•  At the same time, many people living in rural areas do not receive their wages for more than 6 months or so each year, and whatever they produce is used merely to feed their families not to pay for excess costs such as schooling.

•  60%–80% of women trafficked to Germany and one-fifth of all female dancer visas issued by Switzerland during 1997 were for Russian women.