Expanding and deepening work among Romanian-speaking youth

For two years, BOL’s ‘Man’s Zone’ project has been serving young men from vulnerable families. These 20 boys were completing their professional studies at vocational schools. Orphaned, or from broken poor families, they had low life skills and no money for higher education. This category of men becomes very vulnerable to labor trafficking.  Also, since the majority of the boys experienced violence in the family or in trade school, they are at increased risk of becoming aggressors or consumers of sexual services themselves.

Aware of the need, we continued the Man’s Zone project in 2014, supporting 10 young men with a monthly food package, clothing and other supplies along with life skills lessons. But we realized that our influence on Romania- speaking youth could be expanded further with the coming of two social teachers, Moldovans with a passion to serve same-language young people. So, in January, we established a Bible study group for boys within Man’s Zone. Many of them are already very open people, who want to learn the Kingdom way of thinking and living according to God’s original intent. An encouraging fact is that within several weeks the group expanded as the young men also brought their friends Bible study.  Also, Romanian-speaking social teachers expressed a desire to carry out special meetings with students in the campus of State University of Moldova and in several colleges and trade schools. At the first meeting there were more than 60 young people. Subsequent meetings were attended by almost the same number of people. This good feedback from the students encourages us to continue this awareness work among youth widely and deeply.