Vulnerable girls and women who have been trafficked in Albania are being helped by new initiatives, supported by BMS World Mission.
A safe accommodation project is already helping seven women who have recently been discharged from prison in the capital, Tirana.
Home
Despite being the innocent victims of trafficking, many Albanian girls and women are imprisoned for working as prostitutes.
They then leave prison without support from family and friends, with no prospects of getting a home or a job and frightened of meeting traffickers again. In spite of assistance from the government, the rate of re-trafficking is high.
Hannah Wilson, BMS representative for counter-trafficking work, says, "This project will assist vulnerable girls as they leave the prison in finding safe and appropriate accommodation and then help them to find employment, build a network and eventually re-build their lives".
Sewing
Another development that Hannah is excited about is a new sewing business being run by a team, which includes BMS volunteer, Brian Mitchell.
"Brian will be working with the prison ministry team there from April to implement a sewing business for the women as they leave prison or the safe houses," says Hannah.
In addition to these hands-on schemes, a prayer-focused Walk of Hope is planned for 7 - 24 April, organised by the Albanian Evangelical Alliance.
Walkers will stop in churches across the length of Albania to take part in special services and pray for the victims of trafficking and the situation in Albania.
Hannah explains, "Through this walk we want to raise awareness of the situation and then afterwards we will be organising further training for churches".
Seminars
Christians are really making a difference in anti-trafficking work in Albania.
When social worker Rezi Kardellemaj returns to Albania after training on a counselling course in the UK, she will co-ordinate the anti-trafficking work for the evangelical community there and will also sit on government committees.
The Albanian Baptist Union has run training and awareness seminars in a number of the churches in Albania and appointed a volunteer, Alketa Dumani, to head up the anti-trafficking work specifically within the Baptist churches.
In fact, this ministry is progressing across the whole continent. Hannah is on the European Baptist Federation (EBF) anti-trafficking working group.
She says: "We hope to visit a number of the Baptist Unions in Europe and encourage and support them in the work they are doing or want to do to address this issue.
"We want to see stronger links between the unions so, if a girl is returned from the UK to Moldova for instance, we can call the Baptist Union in Moldova to help with a successful transition for the girl back into her country."
What you can do
After the success of the In transit campaign, which collected 11,000 names, and was presented at the Embassy of Albania last month, what can British Baptists do next? Here are a few suggestions: