Over the last decade, more than 420,000 Ukrainian women between the ages of 15 and 27 have been trafficked. One study reveals that one in every 10 Ukrainian persons knows someone in their community who has been trafficked.
The majority of Ukrainian women are trafficked to Turkey, Russia, Poland and other western European nations. The question is: What’s being done to stop it?
Lars Dunberg with Global Action says they just started a program called The Dream Project. It’s a program for young women who are about ready to graduate from the orphanage system. Out of desperation, many of these young ladies turn to prostitution just to make a living. This project changes that.
“We take them for 10 months, and we train them,” Dunberg says. “We put them in our boarding program in our Hope Center in Crimea, and we train them in a beautician’s course.”
Dunberg says once they graduate they are basically qualified beauticians.
“They can get a job. They can even set up a salon,” Dunberg says. “And of course, they learn a lot about Jesus Christ as a result of working with Christian staff and being in a Christian environment 24/7 for 10 months.”
The Dream Project gives these girls a new dream. Currently, 12 girls are in the project and will complete their training in June. However, the need to fund even more young ladies is great.
Dunberg says while the trade training is key to their success, Global Action goes beyond that: “They not only learn beautician stuff; we also train them how to get on in life: how to handle money, how to run a business, and that kind of stuff. We’re trying to figure out how to do this for as many girls as possible.”
Of course, the greatest thing about this program is the gospel, Dunberg says: “We share the gospel with them constantly. Not all of them obviously have come to the Lord, but many of them have already.”
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