Last year the doors started opening to expand The Freedom Highway into Romania's eastern neighbor, Moldova. This is a country with great need for human trafficking prevention practices.
What began as an invitation to train 32 police officers as part of a new course for specialists in the prevention of human trafficking quickly turned into a wide-open door to this former Soviet Union nation!
Leaders at the police academy asked our team for assistance in building a program that trains the trainers to expand anti-trafficking knowledge to first responders and communities across the nation.
In April, members of our team were in Moldova to see this dream become a reality. Thanks to the generosity of partners like you who donate to Uncaged, we were able to meet the need presented to us by leaders in law enforcement.
They asked us to come alongside them to renovate a space for use as a new modern conference room. We were able to cover renovation, updating technical systems, and purchaseing equipment and furniture.
European Director Beni Lup, the founder of Uncaged CEO Kim Westfall, new member of the Board, ex-investigating officer Murang Pak were among those present for the opening of the new space at Ştefan cel Mare Police Academy. They also participated in a public lesson with the third-year students of the Faculty of Law, Administration, Order and Public Security, addressing the topic "Positive practices for investigating human trafficking and assisting the victims of this phenomenon".
This space will be utilized in a program our team is working hand-in-hand with leaders of the police academy to develop. This training hub will be used for online training, and multi-disciplinary training of social workers, doctors, clergy, and law enforcement.
One attendee at a recent training said, “I believe that this course must be taught to every single student, every teacher, but also every politician. It is so clear that [human trafficking] is devastating to individuals and to communities.”
We can only begin to imagine the impact the growing Freedom Highway will have. We believe this is a key area to stop trafficking across Europe! The ripples beginning here will spread across nations and generations.
Already we are seeing bigger impacts than we could have planned for. Our goal was to train 4,000 people (including cadets, police officers and executives, border patrol, and interdisciplinary teams across the country) in 2024. However, in the first three months of 2024, we trained over 7,000 people!
Your support is building up a nation of anti-trafficking advocates and first responders. Thank you for walking with us as we work to say "slavery no more" in Romania, Moldova, across Europe - and to the ends of the earth!
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