"Breaking The Chains Of Human Trafficking" |
| Contact Information Email : info@freeforlifeministries.com Phone : 615-969-9052 Address : PO Box 158715 Nashville, Tennessee 37215-8715 USA |
| Stories Of Iana and The Girls |
| Hero is not a word we hear enough these days but Iana Matei, the founder of Reaching Out, personifies this word. She is listed along with nine others by the U.S. State Department in the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report as a hero in the field of human trafficking. If you were to ask Iana she would be the last to call herself such. She would just say that helping these girl was the right thing to do. Iana understands what it means to hunger for freedom. She lived in Romania during a time when freedom was in short supply. She had escaped from Romania during the communist regime. She slipped across the border at a time when to do so could cost you your life. Once free, she became a refugee in Australia. With the help of friends she was also soon able to rescue her young son. Both Iana and her son were to call Australia home for the next 10 years. During that time the communist government would fall and the opportunity to return to Romania again would be an option. She wanted her son to see the beauty of Romania and so they went back for a visit. While In Romania, she saw children that were struggling to survive on the streets. She had been working in Australia with street children, but the children in Romania were so much worse off her heart broke. She did go back to Australia but was not able to shake the picture of the children she had just seen. In her heart she knew she was called to go back and work with these children. Now back in Romania she began her work with the children that had been abandoned to the streets. Iana came to be known to the authorities for her work with the street children, and so one evening she got a call from them saying they had picked up three "whores." They asked her if she would come down and get them. She went down to where they were being held and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Standing before her were three young girls no older than fourteen or fifteen. She knew something wasn’t right. The girls began to tell her a story about being sold and abused. Iana told the authorities that these children were not "whores" as they had referred to them, but victims of a crime. She told them to get them some clothes and place them in the hospital she would figure out what to do with them the next day. That day in 1998 the ministry of Reaching Out would begin. Now, at the end of a street, stands a safe house open to girls rescued from sexual trafficking. It is not just a house, but it is a home, and Iana is their mother. They may stay for a year as they regain their lives and heal from the trauma they have been subjected to. Here they receive health care, legal aid, the opportunity to complete their education, and to learn new skills that enable them to enter the workforce. Upon the completion of the program, Reaching Out acts as a mediator for victims while they seek employment, with the aim of reducing the victims chances of re-entering the trafficking cycle. Iana has earned the respect and cooperation of Romanian officials in her fight against sexual trafficking. She has spoken before the United Nations, and is held in high esteem by the U.S. State Department. Iana has been featured on the news program "48 Hours," has been interviewed by countless newspapers, and spoken at conferences around the world as an expert in this field. She is a champion for these young women and children sold into sexual slavery that are so desperately in need of a voice. |
