Recycled cycles improve lives of children at risk from traffic gangs
A charity has revealed how recycled cycles are helping protect vulnerable children from human traffickers in Eastern Europe.
Stella’s Voice, headquartered in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, has teamed up with another charity to refurbish bicycles destined for landfill. The cycles are then shipped to impoverished Moldova in Eastern Europe, where young people from poor, rural areas with little education make up a third of trafficking victims.
Stella’s Voice, set up in 1996, has helped hundreds of children at risk in Moldova by providing homes, mentors and the longterm stability needed to prevent exploitation. Now a new link with Aberdeen-based Camphill Schools – which provide community-based care for people with learning disabilities and special support needs – is a key part of the programme.
Stella’s Voice European director Mark Morgan, 50, said: “Stella’s Voice was named after a girl we got to know on a visit to Moldova. When we hadn’t seen her for a while we made inquiries. She had to leave the orphanage at 16 and fell into the hands of traffickers.
She died three years later from Aids.”
Morgan, who runs the charity with wife Sharon, said: “The first thing we do in Moldova for the young people we help is to remove the vulnerability. We put a roof of their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their bellies. The next step is to help with education.
“A lot of them have graduated through that programme, and are holding down jobs, have homes and families of their own, and their kids are not at risk of being trafficked.”
However, the charity had more cycles than it could refurbish. A chance meeting with Camphill School’s development lead Nicolas Nino-ramirez, 38, solved the problem.
Nino-ramirez said: “We have mentored a bike maintenance garage, which provides learning opportunities for young people. This partnership has added so much social value to what we do.”