Our programs in Moldova are designed to help vulnerable children wherever they live and identify those at most risk for inclusion in our transitional living program.
Our Mission
Moldova is the smallest and poorest of the former Soviet Union countries. Situated in eastern Europe between Romania and the Ukraine, Moldova is unfortunately the most trafficked country in the world. The government institutional care of orphaned and abandoned children lasts until they reach the age of 16, or the U.S. equivalent of the freshman year of high school. They are then on their own with no family, no home, and no support. And as Moldova continues to close its orphanages, children are being pushed into often harsher and riskier environments at even younger ages. These circumstances make them prime victims for human trafficking.
JMI’s transitional living program is an effort to meet the needs of these vulnerable young people. JMI has four transitional living homes, two for boys and two for girls situated in the north and central areas of Moldova. We hope to open two more homes in the southern part of Moldova in the next 3-5 years. These homes allow at-risk teens to have the opportunity to continue their education, meet with a JMI social worker to address their needs, receive the love and support of the JMI staff, plus participate in English lessons, life skills classes, computer classes, and Bible studies. JMI’s mission is to raise a new generation of Christian leaders in Moldova through these programs.
What we do
Sponsorship Programs
Vulnerable Children
Our in-country staff provides the opportunity for sponsors to have an ongoing relationship with a child in an orphanage or in an extreme poverty situation. We also provide school and hygiene supplies, seasonal clothes, quarterly gifts, and other services as needed.
Transitional Living
When vulnerable children are around age 15, we assess them for inclusion in JMI’s transitional living program. Transitional living provides a safe home (if needed), accountability figures, spiritual guidance and counseling, social work services, tutoring, volunteer projects, life skills, vocational training and the possibility of a higher education, all within a family-like environment.
Independent Living
We provide an independent living program beyond transitional living that allows successful graduates to share living expenses in shared apartments while attending university or beginning their career, moving them further along the road to self-sufficiency and protecting them from being trafficked.
Summer Camps
We minister to orphanages, shelters and villages through summer camp programs led by our partner churches. These camps allow us to share the love and hope of Jesus with all the participating children, while identifying the most at-risk for sponsorship.
Donate
Our Transitional Living Program is the most effective and most expensive program JMI runs in Moldova. If every Transitional Living Teen is fully sponsored each year. JMI still runs an $80,000 annual deficit for this program. Would you help us close this gap by giving a monthly, quarterly or annual gift toward this effort to prevent these precious ones from falling victim to human trafficking?
