Sarivan lives in Siscani a small village towards the border with Romania. The roads are in terrible condition. Some parts are so bad, people rather drive through the grass. Not that many people have a car. People walk, ride a bike or use their horse and cart.

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, with an average income of about 100 euro a month. This is the main reason why a quarter of the Moldovan workforce is working abroad. For Siscani this is not different. In the village almost every family has at least one relative outside the country who sends back money to repair the house and pay for the kids school or university.

Better conditions

“The decision for me to leave the country was simple,” says Petrea Sacacol. “My daughter got married and became pregnant, but there were no job opportunities for her here.” This was ten years ago. He left the village with a little knowledge of Greek, but no job offer in the country. “I ended up as a caretaker for a rich family. I was lucky I guess. My job was to water the plants, do maintenance. Stuff like that.” Later his wife joined him to work for the family. In total he spent five and half years abroad, making together with his wife about 940 Euros a month.

For Gheorghe Sarivan the money was also the reason to leave the country. “You can not live with two kids from a double salary.” Both Gheorghe and his wife Maria are teachers. “You can earn a maximum of 4000 Lei (270 euros) a month. My wife earns now only half of it. So what can you do with that?” The salary is just enough to pay the electricity and phone bills. For food the family is dependent on their own fields and animals.

To improve the living conditions for his family Sarivan left the country. First he worked legally for a few years in the Czech Republic. And from the summer in 2006 till summer of 2008 illegally in Italy. There he didn’t make much money. “I could send maybe 40 euros a month, the rest I earned went to the people I took a loan from. It cost me 4500 euro to be smuggled to Italy.”

Kids without parents

At the local school the consequences of the migration are becoming visible. “This kid has a parent in Italy, her father is in Russia, this one in Portugal,” says Becca Whiteley while pointing towards them. Whiteley is a US Peace Corps volunteer who’s been working within the community for almost two years. “It is not uncommon for kids to be separated from their parents for a long time.” These kids grow up with their grandparents, relatives, or on their own.

Svetlana Miheil hasn’t seen her mother for three years “One day she told me she would go for work abroad,” says the now fourteen year-old. “She didn’t know for how long. And last year, my dad also left for Italy.” For the time being Svetlana lives with her twenty year old brother and his wife.

Every day Svetlana calls her mother. “I miss her so much,” she tells with tears in her eyes. “I miss the love. The possibility to talk with her about girl’s things.” She keeps on telling her mother how much she misses her, but she can not come back because she’s illegally in Italy. “Mom keeps telling me that everything will be better soon, that I just have to wait.”

Parental tragedy

The social consequences of migration are enormous. “These families are thrown apart,” says Ghenadie Cretu of the International Organisation of Migration in Chisinau. “Psychologically this is very hard for them. The lack of parental care has long term negative consequences on education, but also on emotional stability.”

For Gheorghe Sarivan leaving his kids was the hardest thing he ever did. “It’s a tragedy not to see your kids grow up. You miss their first steps, the things they do at school.” But if he had to choose, he would do it again. “As parents you have the power to give your kids a better life, but for that we need to go abroad.”

But because Gheorghe was not at home, the kids had to help in the every day life of the countryside. “My son Costel learned to bring in the cows,” say Maria Sarivan. Before and after school he had to work the fields, take care of the animals and so on. “They grew up fast, working like adults.”

At this moment Moldova is at a political crossroads. But will it move into the direction of the EU?

Wolfgang Behrendt is head of political and economic department of the Delegation of the European Commission in Chisinau. He believes Moldova is on the right track. Igor Munteanu, director of the influential social-economic think-thank IDIS Viitorul believes that the EU should put more effort into the monitoring of the reforms.

Political reforms

Behrendt: “There are improvements in this country, but it goes step by step. The big problem for Moldova is not to create the laws, but to implement them. I believe there is a lack of well qualified people. And those who are skilled leave the country, or work for a company which pays more than the government.”

Munteanu: “The EU should put much more pressure on the reforms of governmental institutions. In the past years they were supporting political figures who promise change, like what they did with president Voronin. That is obviously not working. One of the big problems right now, with reforming the institution, is the fact that the power of the presidential clan is everywhere.”

Behrendt doesn’t want to comment on the presidential influence within society. “But there has to be a change in mentality on all political levels. In this country things have gone on a certain way for many years, and now they have to do it on our terms. The elite in the top knows what the EU wants from them. But to get it all the way down, into all levels of the bureaucracy, that is another story.”

Totalitarian state

During the demonstrations in April, people got killed, journalists reporting on the scene were beaten. In the aftermath people became terrified of the police, students got tortured and NGOs got checked by financial police. That doesn’t seem like a move towards EU, but more a move towards authoritarianism.

Behrendt: “I don’t believe this country is going in the direction of an authoritarian state like Belarus. Remember that Moldova is a country in transformation, with all the problems that come with that. Like a weak and fragile state. It is slowly moving in the right direction, and sometimes it moves back.”

Munteanu isn’t that positive. He is afraid that his country might end up on the wrong track. “This moment, right after the April elections, is a crossroad for Moldova. Now the EU should stick to its principals. If it promotes prosperity and democracy, it should keep the principles very high. The European Union often has a lot of arguments not to do something for us. We are too far, we are too busy, we are still digesting. We know these arguments very well. But now it’s time for them to say that their principles really matter, also for the European citizens outside their borders.”

Expectations of the people

Behrendt: “I believe that the people of Moldova are realistic. They understand that accession to the EU is right now not on the agenda. In this country there is this hope that the EU will bring a better life. A hope not only for more money and better living conditions, but also for more stability and rule of law. They hope that the EU can help them achieve that.”

Munteanu: “Our country does not need the EU as a gift overnight. This country needs transformation, and that can only be accomplished if there is a golden ticket at the end of the race. But in general people expect too much from the EU. That is something you see in all the countries which are willing to integrate. What it is that Moldavians really want from the EU? The commitment of the EU, people need this to accept the fact that they have to suffer. In the end all we need is some democratic solidarity.”

1. How big is the problem in Moldova?
2. What is human trafficking exactly?
3. So everyone can be trafficked?
4. How does this trafficking work?
5. Where do these people get exploited?

1. How big is the problem of human trafficking in Moldova?

Moldova has a big problem with human trafficking. Exact figures on human trafficking are impossible to give. But estimations are that between one and two per cent of the people who go abroad experience some form of trafficking in their life.

In the past ten years more than a million people have travelled abroad, some leaving the country more than once. A modest estimate could be that around 10.000 people have been trafficked recently.

That Moldova has a problem, can also be concluded by the annual Trafficking in Persons report by the US State Department. In 2008 for the first time the country moved to the bottom category. The report states that the government is not making any effort to fight the trafficking, nor protecting victims of it.

2. But what is human trafficking exactly?

Trafficking is the business of moving people from one place to another without the legal papers. It includes the recruiting and transportation of persons, and forcing them to work without any rights. (Read the official, and complex, definition of human trafficking at the United Nations website)

Human trafficking is often associated with girls who end up in prostitution. Although this is true in Moldova for more than half of the cases, there are other forms of forced labour.

There has been an increase of men who are forced to work in construction and agriculture, earning almost no money while living in harsh conditions. Also kids and old people can be victims. They are, for example, forced to beg on the street.

3. So everyone can be trafficked?

Yes and no. Yes, because you can find victims in all social groups and all ages. But anti-trafficking organizations in Moldova do identify high-risk groups. Often the victims live in the countryside, with almost no working possibilities. They have only basic education.

In the case of women, they are often between 18 and 25 and come from vulnerable families. They might have only one, or no parents; grew up in a poor economic situation and often have experienced domestic violence.

For men the profile is not so clear. There is no specific age and background. Often they don’t have a (decent paying) job and take all offers to make some money abroad.

4. How do these traffickers work?

First of all, the victims don’t know they are being trafficked until they reach their destination. They are recruited in Moldova to work abroad. In two third of the cases this is done by friends, family or people they have met before.

On arrival in a country the victim is told that the promised job is not there. The passport and belongings are taken away. The person is threatened, both physically and mentally. In the end they don’t have any other choice but accept the situation to be exploited.

5. Where do these people get exploited?

The main destination for trafficked women is Turkey, followed by Russia and the United Arab Emirates. In these countries the women are mainly exploited in the sex business. In Western Europe labour exploitation is more often the case.

Russia is the top-country for men. Many of them work there in a non-trafficked way, but more and more stories about exploitation are reported by NGOs.

Because of the strict Visa-regime in the EU, Western Europe is not in the top destinations for Moldovans. Travelling to countries like Russia and Turkey is much easier for them – and so is being trafficked there.

“Everything about this example is true,” says Lilia Gorceag. “Except the name.” Gorceag worked with Natasha as a psychologist at the International Organization of Migration. The organisation has a shelter for victims of human trafficking in one of the suburbs of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

Gorceag’s goal is to help victims of trafficking to feel at peace with themselves . “It is very important to show the victims that they are not guilty. All that Natasha wanted was to help her family and get a better life. She trusted someone she thought had good intentions, but that person betrayed her.”

The example of Natasha is not an individual case. Every year hundreds, maybe thousands of Moldovan girls get trafficked and end up in forced prostitution. Although there are no exact figures on how many people get trafficked, estimations are that one to two per cent of the migrants will find themselves at a certain moment in a situation which could be defined as trafficking.

Returning after being trafficked

In the last decade the International Organization of Migration (IOM) Moldova helped more then 2000 people to come back to Moldova. People like Natasha, who worked in the sex business, or people who have experienced other forms of labour exploitation.

With help from other IOM offices, anti-trafficking NGOs or local police the victims of traffickers are directed back home. At the border they are welcomed by someone from IOM Moldova, who offers them help. “Often they don’t want it,” says Gorceag. “They are afraid that they will be locked up again. But after we show the facilities and explain what we do, most of them agree to stay at our shelter for a while.”

Another source for victims is the Moldovan police, who in the last few years have received special training on human trafficking. They might notice that something is wrong at the border control, when someone comes back. The local police also plays an important role. They might get suspicious when they see somebody that comes back after a few years with no money and behaving strangely. What that behaviour is? Gorceag: “For example they don’t come out of the house, or they have serious problems and fights with their family.”

When the victims enter the doors of the IOM shelter the work for Gorceag and her five colleagues starts. “First thing we do is sit down and talk about the experiences. This way the victim gets the chance to reveal all the stress, the emotions, the pain, the fears.”

Not only girls

The word girl or woman are carefully avoided by organisations of human trafficking. Instead they use victim or beneficiary. “Human trafficking is always associated with girls that end up in prostitution,” says Viorelia Rusu. “But that is not always the case. Men are trafficked as well, ending up in forced labour. And so do kids and old women, they have to beg for money on the streets.”

Rusu works as an analyst at the anti-trafficking organisation La Strada. The international organization is based in eight Eastern European countries, trying to prevent trafficking and helping people who are being trafficked to escape their situation.

The reason why the statistics of La Strada show that 95 per cent of the cases are woman and three quarters involves sexual exploitation, is clear for Rusu. “The Moldavian way for men to react is: They just cheated on me, it’s my own fault. The men don’t see themselves as victims of traffickers. They are ashamed to receive any psychological or medical help. ”

This is also what IOM experience. From the 19 people currently in the shelter, only one is a man. According to Gorceag men are afraid to get assistance. “But labour exploitation is not better than sexual,” she says. “They live in similar bad situations. There is a lot of violence, they are locked up and make awful long working hours. The men suffer from health problems, and in some cases they are also sexually abused.”

Start a new life

After Natasha arrived at the shelter, she received help in all kinds of fields. She got assistance on legal issues, from getting her papers done to the possible prosecution of her trafficker. She received medical treatment, social assistance and psychological counseling. The ultimate goal is to help a victim to start a new life.

In most cases all the help is done without the family noticing. “The biggest fear is that their relatives find out,” says Gorceag. “In 90 per cent of the cases the fact that they were trafficked is kept secret.” The reason for this is that the victims are afraid their families will abandon them, or that the whole community will find out and see her as a prostitute.

But the chances that a victim is able to get a normal life again, are variable. Some get reintegrated very well, while others have a hard time. “The rehabilitation goes well when a person has some decent education and when there is a family around which is supportive,” according to Gorceag. “But sadly that is not always the reality. In most cases one, and sometimes both factors are missing. If the latter is the case, there is a bigger risk they will be trafficked again.”

Informing about migration, instead of preventing

Sadly enough there will always be a chance that people get exploited as long as they are searching for a better life, believes Rusu of La Strada. But the organisation is not advising people not to go abroad. “That simply wouldn’t work,” says Rusu. “There are too many positive examples of migration. People want to leave the country as long as others are coming back with money to pay for the education of their children, to buy a house or drive a fancy car.”

The tactics of La Strada, and IOM, is to inform people about the risks involved with migration. Big television campaigns, posters, leaflets and school visits are all part of that. But the most important is the 24/7 hot-line, which La Strada runs to inform people. Daily it receives between five to ten calls from people who have questions because they have been offered jobs abroad, or relatives who are worried about someone.

“People do get more aware of dangers,” Rusu says. “Specially after we run campaigns, then we see big peaks in the number of calls.” But she also likes to refers to a survey La Strada held two years ago. 52 per cent of the responders said they where aware of human trafficking, the rest had heard about it, but couldn’t say exactly what it was. “And we have come far,” states Rusu. “When we started with La Strada in 2001, nobody knew anything about trafficking.”

Although all the information provided and growing awareness, there still is a chance things will go wrong. That’s why La Strada is these days also providing foreign contact details of local anti-trafficking organizations which can help victims. Rusu: “Just in case they end up in a bad situation.”

But the truth is far from that. In fact the orphan will be trafficked, ending up in forced labour. “These guys take advantage of the fact that these kids don’t have many social skills,” says Cameron. For the past six years she’s been trying to prevent young girls ending up in the sex industry. How? To provide orphans with a place to stay, after they are forced to leave their shelter at the age of sixteen.

Stella’s House

That place to stay is a big bright yellow house in a small town 15 kilometers out of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. “Welcome to Stella’s House,” Cameron says. She takes a seat in one of the comfortable leather sofas. In the corner of the room stands a laptop, on the other side a brand new music centre. “We try to give these teenagers a good life,” she says.

Not much later two of the in total of 19 girls living at Stella’s House, enter the room. “Oh, my legs hurt,” says Liuda, who is one of them. “And my belly too.” She drops on the couch like only teenagers can do. “You’ve been working out?,” asks Melody Cameron. “No, I was just playing football.”

On the other side of the couch sits Melody’s father, Philip Cameron. He is a minister from the US who’s been working with orphans in Moldova since the fall of Communism twenty years ago. When he found out that kids were sent away when they turned 16, he decided to build a place for them; Stella’s House. Since that time he has travelled several times a year between the US, where he does the fundraising, and Moldova where the actual help takes place.

Preventing trafficking

The original idea of Stella’s House was to keep the girls out of the hands of human traffickers. “Those people will ruin their whole life,” says Philip Cameron. “And you know, these people who do this, they hardly get any punishment.” He gets visibly irritated by that. “Oh no, if I could decide…” He’s quite and thinks for a while. “Well, let me say it this way. I would put my Christian beliefs aside for few minutes.”

The dangers of being trafficked is something that worries Philip Cameron a lot. “I keep telling these girls to be careful, that there are guys out there that don’t mean well.” This is also why the house has strict rules. Every girl needs to go to school. Alcohol and cigarettes are not allowed and neither are boys.

“If they get involved with men, they might get in trouble,” according to Philip Cameron. “They can get be sold and end up in terrible situations.” According to statistics most people were trafficked by people they knew before, like lovers and acquaintances.

Family life

But the girls at Stella’s House are much more then just orphans who are being saved from traffickers. “They are my kids,” says Philip Cameron. “I have invested my life in them. We try to be a family for the kids.” He points to the piano where a picture of him and his wife stands. “Life here is not like in an orphanage. They learn the dynamics of being in a family. Now they have a mom, dad, and older sisters.”

Liuda just loves her new life in Stella’s House. “It’s a great thing, you don’t feel like an orphan here because we live like a real family and we help each other.” That is something new for the orphans, they never had any responsibilities. “Everything was done for them,” says Melody Cameron. “But now they have chores. Cooking, cleaning, and so on.”

And like most teenagers, Liuda thinks that isn’t always fun. “Sometimes we don’t obey the rules,” she says. But then the whole house will make sure you do the job. “They will all just keep on telling that you must do it,” she laughs. “Then you don’t have much choice.”

The best possible life

The girls’ lives are changed by the foundation. “They come here with no self-esteem, poor education and some in even in poor health.” But in the house they receive the best possible life and opportunities they could wish for.

The twenty year old Galina has been in the house now for almost a year. “This house is the best possible conditions to live if in for a Moldovan person.” She looks around the modern, western-style house, with all its equipment. These are living conditions not many people in Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, can afford.

Liuda loves being in the house as much as Galina. “It is just great being here.” She enjoys the luxury of the house, but even more the atmosphere. “Finally I don’t feel like an orphan anymore.” But the best things are the opportunity she has had since she came to the house. In the future Liuda wants to become a lawyer. “That’s something I’ve always been dreaming of.”

The greatest achievement of the house is that the girls believe in their own future, agree both Philip and Melody Cameron. “If you told Liuda when she was in orphanage that she could do whatever she wanted,” says Melody Cameron. “She would have said: Yeah right, I am just an orphan, with no money for school, nor nice clothes to wear to work. Here we remove all the excuses to not succeed in life.”

Estimates maintain at least a quarter of the work force is not inside the country’s borders. Many of them work in Russia and Western Europe, sending money to relatives back home. In 2007 remittances were good for a stunning 36 per cent of Moldova’s GDP. This makes the country together with Tajikistan the leader in the world when talking about dependency on money from people working abroad.

Remittances become bigger part of Moldovas GDP, see here the exact percentage per year.

But since the economic crisis the money flow has been drying up. In the last three months remittances decreased by 30 per cent, according to statistics of the International Organization of Migration.

Dependency on abroad

“The Moldovan economy developed a growth model based on consumption and imports,” say Ghenadie Cretu, economist at International Organization of Migration (IOM). The past years this model worked okay. Since 2001 the GDP has increased by at least 5 per cent a year.

But both Cretu and Veaceslav believe it is dangerous to let your economy grow using remittances. “In our language we have this saying which fits perfectly,” says Veaceslav. “Our economy is like ‘a rain puddle’. When there is rain, it’s there. But when it stops raining, the puddle dissapears. That’s our economy. If people stop sending money, there is no economy.”

One out of four households in Moldova is dependent on remittances send from abroad. Almost everybody knows at least a handful of people who are working abroad. Their importance is big. The remittances are mainly used for daily needs, like buying food and clothes, paying the rent and improving the house.

Consequences of the crisis

But with the remittances decreasing, expenditure is going down. For half of the households which are dependent on money from abroad, it makes up half of their budget. “And now people just stop spending,” Veaceslav says.

This has big consequences for the Moldovan state budget, which is sixty per cent dependent on taxation, in the form of VAT on consumptions and imports. Both are going down rapidly, as Moldovans were used to fund them by remittances. For the government this was a reason to request all the authorities to cut back the expenses by 20 per cent.

“This will mean that the government soon can not pay the salaries to public workers,” believes Cretu. “Probably people working as doctors and teachers won’t get their money within the coming weeks, and also pensions won’t be paid.”

Veaceslav also believes that this is only the beginning of the crisis in Moldova. “The big problems will start in September, when more people won’t receive their salary as the whole state will collapse because of the lack of incomes.”

Again a crisis

Big economic crises are not new for Moldova. After it’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 the economy went into free fall, making it the poorest country in Europe. The bottom was hit in 1998, when the country’s main export market failed during the Russian financial crisis.

But when working abroad was the solution to fight the crisis ten years ago, they are now causing troubles. “Many Moldovans are now returning home because they can’t find work,” says Cretu. At the same time he sees seasonal workers are not leaving for Russia, which they normally did.

” After 1998 the remittances were a capital infusion for the country,” says Veaceslav. But many of the countries where many Moldavians work – Russia, Italy, Spain and Portugal – have been hit severely by the crisis.

The only way out of this is with international financial help, thinks Veaceslav. “But I doubt if the EU and others are willing to lend us money. I don’t think anyone trusts this Communist government.”

Since the age of 16 Pascovschi has been involved in politics. He talks full of passion about it. For a long period he was vice-president of the youth organization of the Liberal Party in Moldova. Now he’s trying to get his way into the political arena.

Demonstrations

Pascovschi walks to one of the places he likes in Chisinau, the Central Park. “You see this graffiti here.” He points to a slogan saying ‘Dont worry’. It was put there during the demonstrations after the elections. “You find anti-government slogans these days all around the city. People do want political change here.”

Unfortunately Pascovschi could not attend the massive demonstrations. “I was doing my internship in Rome” he says. “I saw the news and was thinking ‘What am I doing here in Italy? I need to go back to my country. This is the time! But I couldn’t.”

Europe

Pascovschi returned only two weeks ago to Chisinau. He really has to get used again to Moldovan standards. “I find it really hard to see what kind of conditions our people live in. The difference between the EU and Moldova is so big. It’s unbelievable.”

He understands that many of the young people leave the country. “Under these conditions it’s really hard to find a job, and especially one which also pays some good money.” But the massive migration has two sides to it for Pascovschi

The positive side, he believes, is that it will improve the country in the long run. “In Italy I experienced that it is possible to have a better life. Like me, there are so many others who come back, and try to improve the conditions in our country.” But at the same time there is a negative side. “I have the feeling only old people stay in Moldova with their old fashioned view of things.”

Inspiration

One of the people who doesn’t have an old fashioned view is the mayor of Chisinau. Dorin Chirtoaca of the Liberal Party is hated by the Communist Party, but a great inspiration for Pascovschi. At 30 Chirtoaca is part of a new generation of politicians. “He’s a man that stands for his principles and is not afraid for the pressure by the government. That is what I like about him.”

“The best thing about the mayor is that he is a politician who doesn’t think about himself, because that is what most politicians do in Moldova. He could have taken the easy road, he has money, so he could just build a nice house and live his life. But he chose to fight for a better life in this country, a life with European standards. He believes that our country can do much better. But there are only a few people who think like this.”

Change

Like so many young people in Moldova, Pascovschi hates the Communist government. “What do they do for this country? Nothing. They are the problem.” In Pascovschi’s voice you hear the anger. “The president and government have the power to move this country into the direction of the EU or Russia. But now, there is nothing. Thanks to them there is no development in Moldova.”

Pascovschi believes that the youth has the will to change, more than the old generation who are largely in favour of the Communists. “We have a mentality to change things. The youth thinks about the future and how we can get on the same level as the EU. The old mentality lives by the day. As long as it’s the same or better as the day before, it’s okay for them.”

For Pascovschi that is not the way forward. “We need to think about the future of Moldova. We need perspective inside this country, so we have a reason to live for tomorrow.”

Strawberries are everything for Lozovanu. “You cannot have too many of them,” he smiles. “Everybody wants to eat our strawberries. In our village, we are famous.” He takes a small plate and finds the biggest and the best.

But the love for strawberries is not the most interesting thing about Gheorghe Lozovanu. In a country where a quarter of the workforce is abroad, it’s hard to find someone who has made a clear decision to stay in Moldova.

Staying in Moldova

The reason for Lozovanu to stay is simple, but at the same time complicated. “It doesn’t feel good to leave my country,” he says. He takes his time and starts to think about it. “It is a feeling which is hard to describe. This is my country, these are my roots.”

“When you leave Moldova, you can’t really contribute to the development of the country,” he believes. Although one third of the country’s GDP are remittances, experts say the money that is sent back, is not invested into the society. Lozovanu agrees. “The money they earned in Italy is put into the house, or a car.”

But that doesn’t mean he blames his fellow Moldavians for leaving. “Everybody in this country dreams of a good life and many believe they can find it in another country. It is true you can make much more money abroad. But it takes more to have a good life. For example being close to your family and friends.”

The village is my home

Lozovanu was born and raised in the village of Lozova. A wide spread village 45 kilometers northwest of the capital Chisinau. It is located between green hills filled with vineyards and young barley. A fresh valley wind sweeps the branches of the willows in front of the house. Like his family name, the village originates from these trees which you find everywhere in the region.

This is home for Lozovanu. For no price does he want to live somewhere else. During his agriculture study he spent a few months in Great Britain. “At the moment I entered the plane, I knew that this wasn’t right.”

Improving business

So after his study, he decided to improve the situation and took a more commercial stand on the strawberry fields of his parents. “On the countryside everybody believes they are an expert. But they aren’t really. Things just go as they always went. My parents never studied how to grow strawberries. They just did it.”

Lozovanu takes an other approach. “For example I experiment with different races, bigger ones then we normally have here in Moldova. People are not used to them, but they love them.” He also invests time in studying about his product. “I read books about the best way to grow them. If you want to improve things, you have to study. I think it’s the key to everything.”

Lozovanu dreams of improving his business even more. Last year he applied for a US fund to create an irrigation system, but he didn’t get it. “There are limited amount of funds, and in our region some other projects received the money.” Another thing he loves to have is a greenhouse, so he isn’t dependent on the seasons and can work all year long.

Fear for corruption

But at the moment Lozovanu isn’t that keen on making his strawberry business much bigger. The reason for this is the fair amount of corruption in the country. According to the World Economic Forum this is after the difficulties of getting finance, the biggest factors why people are not investing in Moldova.

“Right now the government leaves us alone. We only have half a hectare of ground and we sell our products on the market in Chisinau. Nobody wants any money from us. But if your business grows, people will see money. At that moment everybody wants their share.”