More than 3,500 people aged between 12 and 20 have until now vowed to remain chaste until marriage within the national project “Real love waits” that was launched by the public association “For family” last year.

In a news conference at IPN, the association’s head, priest Vasile Filat said that since it was launched at the end of last November, the project reached education institutions in 55 settlements. A number of NGOs and Christian organizations have become involved meanwhile. The project is supported by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family.

According to the priest, the project is intended for the over 400,000 teens and young people from the country and promotes chastity until marriage. The young people attend lessons in schools and at prayer houses and take part in private discussions.

Every participant is able to sign a commitment pledging to remain chaste until marriage. The commitment is .written on a two-page pamphlet. On the wedding day, the young people will exchange half of the pamphlet and will leave the other half in a niche of a chastity monument named suggestively “Real love waits”. The monument will be unveiled in one of the parks of Chisinau on the International Day of Families that is marked on May 15. Vasile Filat underlined that the local authorities of Chisinau welcomed the association’s initiative and are ready to allot a plot where to place the monument.

The memorial is small in size and has the shape of a heart that turns into a bench. Vasile Filat believes that the monument can shortly become a place where the young people who pledged to remain chaste will propose marriage.

Priest of the Cahul Baptist Church Anatol Dunas said that on a long term the promotion of chastity can contribute to decreasing the high number of unwanted pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases and to reduced infertility among young couples.