April 2009 Newsletter

On April 5^th, Moldova had elections for parliament. A day later the results were released: the Communist party had won. A few hours after everyone knew that the election was fixed. On the 7^th 15,000 Moldovans gathered at parliament to protest. The protest turned into a riot and parliament was burned. For the rest of the week people continued to gather and protest but it didn’t turn violent.

President Voronin has given orders to the police that they are to “shoot to kill” next time it gets out of hand. Young people have been pulled from their university classes, beaten, and placed in prison. In the middle of the night they are moved from prison to prison. Journalists are fleeing the country. The border in and out of Romania has been closed. Some days there is no access to internet or cell phones. All Moldovan and Romanian news stations have been shut down, allowing only the Russian stations to remain.

Right now, Moldova seems to be relaxing. Hopefully in the next few weeks it will continue to do so. Some days people are still protesting, but nothing has turned violent.

HOH Update (Home of Hope)

Two new teenagers have arrived at the Home of Hope. For the one girl, the home is serving as a safe house while she testifies against her traffickers.

We were finally able to hire a Moldovan psychologist. There are many challenges when trying to do this. First, the person needs to be a female. Second, they must be fluent in 3 languages: English, Romanian, and Russian. Third, they cannot be trained in any country part of the former Soviet Union. The reason is because psychologists in this part of world don’t treat patients, they just heavily medicate. Fourth, they need to be a believer. A month ago, we met Elena. She is Moldovan, she speaks five languages (English, German, Romanian, Russian, and Ukrainian), she was educated in Germany, and she is a strong believer who is very active in the local church.