Americans find Moldovans like to brush their teeth
Two students from the A&M University, the most important higher education institution in Texas, have spent a part of their summer, caring for children in summer camps in Moldova, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from a communique issued by Media Newswire.
The young women found the opportunity through Baptist Student Ministries on campus, raised money and followed through by traveling to Moldova and loving on kids at risk to falling victim as part of the largest sex trafficking arena in the world.
“It made me realize how blessed we are here in the United States and how much we take for granted,” one of them, Claire Thompson, said. “I didn’t realize it was a privilege just to drink out of the tap.”
The Aggies were only two on a larger team of college students who traveled to Moldova to lead summer camps. They led music, taught Bible lessons and brought basic supplies to the children.
“We were so scared that the kids wouldn’t care about the hygiene bags we brought to them so we put stickers and play things in there to spice it up, but they were most excited about their tooth brushes,” Thompson said
“It was such a blessing to have the girls work with our children here in the orphanage,” Elena Iaconi, CERI Sponsorship Coordinator said. CERI (Children's Emergency Relief International) is a charity organization from Texas.
In addition to hosting children from Moldovan orphanages at special camps in the summer and at Christmas, CERI is involved in numerous other ministry projects in the Eastern European country.
Every winter, volunteers and staff personally put new boots and socks on the feet of every child in government care (approximately 16,000). A transition program helps shield girls who age out of the orphanage at age 16 from the active recruiters for the worldwide sex trade as well as providing a mentorship program, teaching independent living skills and even helping pay for housing and school expenses.
The agency also has provided a fulltime consultant for two years to help the government move its child and family care program from the mass housing model of the Soviet era to a family-assistance/foster care approach.