06/01/2026
Today is Children's Day in Moldova.
For most children, it's a day filled with laughter, celebration, flowers, proud parents, and dreams about the future. Families gather to celebrate the completion of 9th grade—a milestone marking achievement and new opportunities.
But for an orphan, Children's Day means something entirely different.
The young woman who created this video, Ulizana, knows that reality firsthand.
Ulizana spent the first 10 years of her life in a tuberculosis hospital because it was the only place willing to care for abandoned newborn babies. At age 10, she learned she had a mother and three sisters. Yet on that same day, she was transferred to a state orphanage of more than 700 children.
Like thousands of orphaned children across Eastern Europe, she learned early what it meant to survive alone.
Every year on Children's Day, orphaned teenagers receive their 9th-grade diploma, a bus ticket to the address listed on their birth certificate, and the equivalent of about $30.
Then they are sent away.
No family.
No support.
No plan.
Just a bus ticket and a goodbye.
This is the moment traffickers wait for.
At bus stations across Moldova, vulnerable young people arrive with nowhere to go and no one waiting for them. They have been warned about traffickers. They know the danger. But when you're hungry, scared, alone, and uncertain where you'll sleep that night, promises of work, housing, or a better life can feel like your only option.
Awareness alone cannot stop trafficking.
A safe bed can.
A family can.
A place of refuge can.
This is where Orphan's Hands steps in.
We are the safety corridor between the orphanage and the back seat of a trafficker's car.
We provide what these young people need most: a home, a Christian family environment, education, discipleship, protection, and a future worth believing in.
Throughout this summer, our teams will serve across Moldova through children's camps, village outreaches, and ministry to struggling families. Along the way, we will meet this year's graduates—the young people standing at the edge of adulthood with nowhere to turn.
Our prayer is simple: that every bed at Vatra Village becomes a place of rescue and hope.
In recent years, between 23 and 28 young people have entered our program each August. We are preparing now to receive this next group, believing God will allow us to impact as many lives as possible.
But we cannot do it without you.
Everything you have seen Orphan's Hands accomplish has happened because someone chose to say:
"Yes, I will help."
"Yes, I will give."
"Yes, I will stand in the gap for a child who has no one."
This summer, would you consider becoming a monthly partner?
A monthly gift doesn't just fund a program—it provides a bed, a meal, an education, a family, protection from exploitation, and the opportunity for a young person to discover God's purpose for their life.
When an orphan steps off that bus, they should not have to face the world alone.
Your generosity can ensure that someone is waiting for them.
Today, on Children's Day, help us turn a bus ticket into a future.
Help us rescue. Help us protect. Help us restore.
Give today. Change a life forever.
www.orphanshands.org/donate
