Job Training and Placement - Chisinau

Each year we raise funds to sponsor 10 teenagers in an 8-month vocational training and job placement program.  A highly successful pilot project in 2008-9 led to annual partnership with an established, well-regarded center in Chisinau.  Our participants are orphanage graduates and/or at-risk indigent youth selected for their likelihood of success. Each is guaranteed a job by Insula Sperantelor (Island of Hope) after the student completes their training and certification in one or more career fields. Without this resource, the teenagers would be aging out onto the streets with limited vocational skills. Trafficking of minors for work abroad is a significant problem for indigent and abandoned Moldovan youth.  Insula began with a Counterpart International grant and is founded on anti-trafficking objectives.  It has been sited as a program model by SIDA.  Overall Program Cost: $14,000 USD for 10 teens (includes training, manuals, uniforms, equipment, ongoing career and related support services).  Sponsorship of an individual student: $1,400. A donation of $500 or more allows a donor the option of receiving letters from their sponsor match.  General donations welcomed.

Education Sponsorship - In Country                                           

ABL raises funds to cover the annual room/board costs for a limited number of teenage girls and boys who graduated high school from their orphanage and are currently in good standing in higher education programs.  With the Moldovan government paying orphans' tuition to pursue a degree or certification program, the students' remaining, basic cost-of-living is paid by us.  WHFC/ABL administers the project locally.  This project began with two students in 2006.  Human rights organizations have found that higher education and vocation skills development play a significant role in trafficking deterrence involving impoverished women and children.  Especially vulnerable are teenage orphans.  Cost:  $75 US per month per student.

Cazanesti Internat - Heat

We recently finished raising funds for Phase II of a heating project that provides a more comfortable, habitable, and healthy environment for children living in this boarding school/orphanage. The dormitory heating system has been made more energy efficient in the past year.  Build in the 1960s, this internat is situated on a large rural tract north of the capital. Also home to a Heifer International cattle and rabbit project, this facility cares for approximately 85 children under the age of 17.  It comprises several large, aging buildings; two greenhouses; a garden plot; and some farming equipment. Phase I successfully replaced 50 windows and several doors, to prevent significant heat loss.  Phase II involves heating ductwork to be run to and throughout the building where the children live and sleep. A joint-venture project with another US organization, our cost for Heating Phase II was $10,000 USD.