In the summer of 2015 the Thomson Reuters Foundation met 17-year-old Maya, in a small town in rural Romania. A bright and articulate teenager, Maya shared her experiences of being trafficked into sex work in the city by her boyfriend.
Her story is not uncommon, due to widespread poverty in rural Romania many young people see the sex industry as the best way to make a living.
Through the Nightingales project, an NGO in Romania that helps young people at risk of being trafficked, we met many girls determined to have a different future. Through interviews with Maya’s sisters and those closest to her, this film highlights the difficult choices that fuel the trafficking of young women in Romania.
