Cornesti, Moldova doesn’t offer many options for jobs. A small town in the poorest country in Europe, most people living in Cornesti don’t have running water or heat, much less exciting prospects for careers. While times are hard on everyone, women especially have limited options. Often, they are left at home to try and care for their families on a small budget.
Sinai 30 is fighting to give these women skills and a place to work through their sewing project. Vitalie’s wife, Yurina, is in charge of the project and is passionate about imparting sewing knowledge to women in Cornesti. It’s not just about learning a new trade skill; it’s about giving these women confidence in discovering that they are talented and creative.
Many Moldovan women don’t receive the love and acceptance from their husbands that women in other cultures would. The gender roles are still defined by the man working outside of the home and the women doing domestic chores around the house and taking care of the children – with hardly any help or gratitude from their spouses. It can be very difficult for these women to feel valued and skilled.
Yurina’s heart for these women is that through fellowship with other women, new skills under their belt and a safe place to talk about their lives, they will find value in themselves and the affirmation that they matter.
Human trafficking is a major problem in Moldova, where people who don’t have any type of income fall prey to traffickers who falsely promise them a new life in another country. Once they arrive in that country, their passports are taken from them and with no identity, they are forced to earn money any way they can to try and get out. By teaching women in Cornesti new trade skills, Yurina’s desire is that they women will not ever be desperate enough to be trapped by traffickers.
In Sinai 30’s dream of being self-supporting, Vitalie and Yurina hope to have a marketplace to sell a variety of things, including hand sewn products made by the women of Yurina’s sewing classes. Not only would the products contribute financially to supporting Sinai 30, they would also be the tangible fruit of a labor of love by Yurina and the women of her classes.
