By Gina Grate Pottenger
Eurasia Region Communications
A Christian nonprofit organization, directed by Monica Boseff, a member of Blessings Church of the Nazarene in Bucharest, Romania, is planning to open the first emergency shelter in Romania for survivors of human trafficking.
The ministry, Open Door Foundation, purchased a house in December which it is outfitting with rooms for survivors to stay in while they receive medical care, counseling, spiritual guidance and other help to transition back into society.
The organization is already working with seven women and girls from abroad at a temporary shelter provided by another nongovernment organization, and is in the process of hiring three full-time staff members from the Blessings church. When all the staff are in place, the ministry will have the director, four guards, a psychologist, a social worker and a house manager.
“My greatest desire is that … I want this to be a haven of God’s grace and mercy for every single victim,” said Boseff.
How it began
The organization was originally called Open Door Medical Foundation, and was started by two American Christian doctors in Bucharest who opened a social work ministry with a medical clinic in 2002 for those who couldn’t afford the expensive governmentrun hospitals and doctors. For many years the clinic helped anyone from poor to wealthy. However, over time, many private doctors and hospitals opened and medical care in Romania improved nation-wide. It became clear that the medical side of the ministry wasn’t needed as much as it had been.
Those who ran the foundation put aside the medical work and began seeking God’s direction on where they could be of most help next.
Then, in June 2011, an Americanbased nonprofit organization called MATTO, (Men Against The Trafficking of Others), contacted Open Door and suggested they work together to host an awareness campaign in Bucharest about men’s role in trafficking.
“We prayed about this and God just gave us tremendous peace, so I said ‘Yes, we’ll help you.’ That was starting point,” Boseff said.
The only problem was that the two groups had just a week to organize the city-wide event and there were a number of obstacles. For one thing, they had to get permission from the mayor’s office to find a space to rent in the city. One possibility was the main park downtown by the People’s Palace, but until then it had been closed to all public gatherings after a riotous concert left behind trash and damage to the park.
The committee met right away to review Boseff’s request, and their response was shockingly positive.
“It was our unanimous decision to give you the main park for this event downtown,” they told her. “You should have had this event years ago, we need more like this. You can use [the main park] anytime you want for any amount of hours you need.”
They also said they would “rent” the park to the trafficking awareness event at no cost. Boseff viewed this positive response as God’s clear confirmation to Open Door that getting involved against human trafficking was where God was leading the organization.
Boseff talked to other nonChristian NGOs (non-government organizations) as well as the National Agency Against Human Trafficking to find out what the needs were in Romania. Every group said the same thing: they needed an emergency shelter where survivors could stay for up to six months, because there wasn’t a single shelter for this purpose in all of Romania.
So Open Door decided to open a shelter. The house they bought in December has three large bedrooms, and they’ve put three beds in each room, meaning they will be able to accommodate nine women and girls. When the attic is renovated, it will add four more rooms with space for more
women.
‘If it’s not now, when?’
Staff members are already working with seven survivors at a temporary shelter, and they’re learning how to do this kind of ministry.
For instance, they discovered that it’s best not to share about Jesus Christ right away, but to let the women and girls develop curiosity about spiritual things on their own and then come to the volunteers with their questions and prayer requests.
“By spending time with them, cooking with them, going out shopping, laughing with them, crying with them, they turn around … and ask us ‘Why do you do all this stuff for me?’”
Two of the women asked for reading material, and the volunteers offered to give them some small devotional booklets with short stories, Bible verses and written prayers. The women eagerly accepted the booklets, quickly read them and asked for more.
One young woman asked a staff member, “How is it to be in Christ? What is it like to have a relationship with God? Can I have a Bible?”
Through her research and spending time with the survivors of trafficking, Boseff has developed an unquenchable passion for the ministry. She quoted figures, such as that there are 27 million people currently in slavery around the world, and that it is the highest slavery rate in the history of mankind.
“Why should I wait until someone that I know that is close to me [is trafficked] before I take action?” she asked. “If it’s not now, when? If it is not us Christians, who is going to tell them that a life can only be restored in Christ alone?”
Please pray the staff, director and women of the trafficking shelter that recently opened in Bucharest, Romania. Pray for God to bless the ministry in its material needs, as well as to bring spiritual and physical healing to the victims of trafficking.
“Reprinted with permission from Where Worlds Meet; June 2013 issue
Madaba, Jordan
