How it is like to live with HIV in the Transnistrian region, to be rejected by dearest ones and by the community, to be at the height of despair and despite all odds, to thrive? She is Mila, a young math teacher from Tiraspol who has been living with HIV for 13 years. She accepted her status, gave birth to a daughter, graduated from university, earned good marks, and now enjoys life to the fullest: “I am 33 years old. I live in Tiraspol with my daughter — the most loved person in my life. I work and learn. I have very little free time, but when possible — I paint. My passions and hobbies are my villa, garden, the morning runs. I am living with HIV since 2008. I found out about my status when my husband was hospitalized with pneumocystosis*. The doctors asked me to take the test and it turned out to be positive. My husband transmitted the immunodeficiency virus to me… He died in 2009. I do not openly share my status. The self-stigmatization hinders me. Although most of my relatives, friends and acquaintances know about my HIV-positive status and have an acceptable reaction, the fear of being rejected prevails. Stigmatization impedes me to develop, to enjoy, to feel a full member of society. This feeling is very difficult to overcome. I try, but I don’t always succeed. I don’t even want to talk about my relationship with my relatives… It’s very difficult. My mother still thinks I’m dying soon. She screams everywhere that I’m pitiful because of my HIV status and the therapy I’m undergoing … she tells me a lot of bad words. But I know I’m a good person. I adapted to this status for a very long time, it took me almost seven years. Self-acceptance has had a huge impact on my life. First, this influenced my choice of a husband. I don’t know why I thought I couldn’t have a normal, healthy family. I thought maybe I didn’t deserve it. That’s why my second husband was an antisocial guy. He offended me, he said that no one need such a sick spouse, and I endured, as I thought the same. I suffered everything — his drunkenness and beatings. However, the good part of my life at that time was that I continued to come and communicate with the consultants of the Social Support Center for People living with HIV from Tiraspol. I was interested to learn more about the life with HIV, and I found out a lot of useful information. In 2015, I decided to change my life and leave the construction site where I was working to enter the University of Physics and Mathematics of Tiraspol. I was 27 years old. My colleagues at the Center and my mother-in-law supported me in this decision. After all, when people believe in you, you are ready to move mountains. I was admitted to university, free of budget. After my first year of study, I radically changed my view on life, on HIV. That’s when I decided to leave my husband. And I did it. Then, in 2017, my long-awaited daughter was born. Of course, it was very difficult for me. I gave birth to her at the end of my second year of study. I hardly complete the third year of study, but in the end, I graduated from university, earning excellent grades. And I’m very proud of that because I know how much I’ve worked. As for the feelings, I had then and now… Then I thought that my life was over, and I was periodically depressed. Now I enjoy life, every day I admire the sunrises and sunsets… I enjoy everything I have, even if not all of them are perfect or as I would like them to be. At beginning, to overcome the difficulties, I was looking for power inside me. I wanted to prove to everyone and myself that “I can”, I just have to want it and make an effort. Especially I wasn’t happy with my life, my husband, the drunk workers at work… I really wanted to give up everything and live differently, better. Now everything has become simpler — my power is my daughter. I want to be an example to her. I want her to be proud of me. I don’t lack communication, but I can’t say that I have many friends. The person I trust, my friend is my mother-in-law — the mother of my late husband. For me, the most important thing is for my dearest and closest people to be healthy and happy. Since 2020, Mila attends the activities of the capacity development program to promote human rights in the underrepresented groups on the left bank of the Nistru river, implemented by OHCHR with the financial support of Sweden through the One UN Joint Action “Cross-river support for human rights”. Also, thanks to a grant offered by UNDP through the One UN Joint Action to the CSO “Альянс общественного здоровья” from the left bank of Nistru, Mila attends trainings to become a paralegal specializing in preventing discrimination against people living with HIV in the Transnistrian region. * It is the most common infection in people living with HIV.

Due to severe weather conditions, practically, all the bee families of the Monastery apiary perished this spring. Consequently, the 60 nuns and the 55 young girls of the Theological Seminary were left without one of the most important food of their daily menu: honey. Honey is also a secure source of income for them, vital for the monastery, which at present is in construction.  Moreover, the monastery has also been severely affected by the pandemic crisis. The monastery “Marta and Maria” has started its missionary activity not long ago. Their church "The Shroud of God’s Mother" is too small for the crowd of Christians coming to pray.  That is why, a few years ago, the community of nuns laid down the foundation of a Cathedral. Accordingly, all the money earned from the sale of products grown around the monastery, including the sale of honey, has been invested in the construction of the Cathedral and used for landscaping. The Monastery is a welcoming host for pilgrims from Moldova and abroad, so it was important for the community to renovate it. The help to save the Monastery's apiary came just in time and from where they least expected. The Head Mother found out from the leader of the local Beekeepers' Association about a project launched by the International Labour Organization (ILO) within the Local Employment Partnership (LEP) in the Causeni district for the development of beekeeping business. After long hesitations, the four nuns, in charge of the monastery's apiary, submitted the documents for the business plans competition and followed all the necessary steps. They were pleasantly surprised to find out that they are among the 25 selected beneficiaries and that they will get 10 beehives and as many bee families for free. Furthermore, the nuns of the monastery participated in a training in beekeeping and entrepreneurship, were helped to improve their business plans, to register their business and to obtain the necessary sanitary-veterinary certificates and passports for the apiary. That means they will be able to sell the honey abroad, too. This is particularly important for them, as previously they had to miss several opportunities because of the lack of the necessary documents. Even though Mother Susana has a lot of experience in beekeeping, she says the training was very useful. It encouraged them to review some bee care practices and contemplate diversifying the honey products.  Over the time, the nuns intend to multiply their 40 bee families, enlarge the apiary and  create at least two jobs, so says their business plan. This doesn't seem difficult to them, since they already have a solid foundation: 40 modern hives and as many Carpathian bee families.   Mother Susana claims they have high hopes in relation to beekeeping: “We plan to invest the money earned from the sale of honey in  equipment that would facilitate our work and allow us to diversify the bee products., In time we intend to procure a milk processing machine and other equipment for the monastery's bakery”. She continued: “I believe it is t not in vain the God has opened new horizons for us and offered us this opportunity. The Monastery has all the settings needed for the production of organic honey. It is located in a picturesque place in the middle of the forest and has a rich melliferous base”. She thinks that without the ILO assistance, it would have been much more difficult to revive the monastery's apiary on its own. "I think this project has "sweetened" the lives of many people in our district," says Mother Susana. Business development in beekeeping  is one of the most active initiatives of the Local Employment Partnership (LEP) in Causeni.  "Within the LEP, we identified beekeeping as one of the income-generating sectors for inactive young people, the informally employed, the unemployed, returning migrants and others who have been affected by the pandemic. In addition to the complex assistance offered in launching a beekeeping business, all 25 beneficiaries will be further mentored by the local Beekeepers' Association to increase the honey production and the number of bee families", says Violeta Vrabie, the ILO coordinator of the project "Reactivating Social Dialogue for an Effective Response to COVID -19 in Moldova and  applying it to job creation through Local Employment Partnerships". Launched at the end of current February, the Causeni LEP aims to create and formalize 145 jobs, launch 60 start-ups in sectors with a job creation potential, such as beekeeping, agricultural product processing and the creative industry. This LEP also aims to support the growth of 50 small and micro enterprises. The project budget is approximately USD 146,500. The ILO provides support in the amount of USD130, 000, out of which over US $ 80,000 is provided by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) from the Austrian Development Cooperation funds.

Moreover, that is because in just a few years he has developed successful businesses in various fields and created over 40 jobs. Recently, the entrepreneur opened one of the most modern Malls in Cantemir district, where he has concentrated the majority of his production units: the bakery, the meat processing company, the mini textile factory.  With a total area of ​​over four thousand square meters, the Mall offers generous space for other entrepreneurs willing to sell local products in comfortable conditions and at a reasonable price. In fact, for Victor Culicovschi, the support of local producers is not a simple slogan, but a credence and a principle leading to successful business. "We must offer our consumers quality products, grown in Moldova, thus stimulating the national economy and creating conditions for people to remain at home and have decent work. People and the land are the most important resources of the Republic of Moldova and must be capitalised appropriately", says the entrepreneur. Since he knows how to attract and deal with the company's employees, the latter reward him with their loyalty. There is practically no fluctuation of staff at his enterprises and this happens in the situation when the Republic of Moldova faces severe shortage of labour force. Even during this period of crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the entrepreneur created 15 jobs, including for four persons with disabilities. How did he achieve this performance?    "Loyalty can’t be bought, it is won by fair attitude towards employees, attractive salaries and decent working conditions", explains Victor Culicovschi. Consequently, both parties win: the employees and the employer. As an example, the entrepreneur mentions a case that happened recently at his company, when a new employee, in the security service, in fact, a person with disabilities, revealed a theft scheme from the company's cashier's desk. "I know how difficult it is for a person with disabilities to find a job. By hiring persons with disabilities, we offer them not only a source of existence, but also the possibility to overcome complexes and to perfectly integrate in the community ", says the entrepreneur. Victor Culicovschi tells us that Cantemir Employment Office also played an important role in hiring the last 15 persons by helping to obtain state subsidies for hiring the unemployed and providing on-the-job training to some of the employees. The International Labour Organization (ILO) also had an important contribution to the employment of the disadvantaged persons by providing every employed person with subsidies during three months. By dint of the help provided by the ILO, through Cantemir Local Employment Partnership (LEP), the entrepreneur was able to access funds and purchase a modern video surveillance system for the newly established shopping centre. Victor Culicovschi is one of the 20 entrepreneurs in Cantemir district receiving assistance from Cantemir Local Employment Partnership (LEP). It was launched earlier this year by the ILO with the financial support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) from the funds of the Austrian Development Cooperation in order to solve problems of the local labour market, generate jobs and launch new businesses. The implementation of Cantemir LEP provides for the participation of about 15 public and private partners at the national and local levels, including civil society organizations, financial, educational and training institutions, employment service and associations of producers, enterprises and investors. “In the framework of the Cantemir LEP, Victor Culicovschi benefited from mentorship to develop a businessplan for the expansion and operationalization of his business. With the help of this business plan, the employer also applied to state subsidy programs, and had the opportunity to access the preferential loans offered by the Savings and Loan Association (SLA) for the implementation of the business plan. Subsidizing is a necessary help for the entrepreneurs willing to develop their business and maintain or create jobs, especially in this period of crisis caused by COVID-19", says Angela Danalachi, the head of Cantemir Employment Department. In addition to these benefits, for each created job, the ILO offered the employer a subsidy amounting to 30% of the average salary in the economy, i. e. over 2400 lei per month, for three months. To get that, the employer had to comply with several conditions: to issue an employment contract for an indefinite period for each employee, to hire unemployed persons registered by Cantemir Employment Department and to pay a decent salary. Thanks to the success and received support, now Victor Culicovschi wants to expand his business, diversify the range of products, increase the production capacity and even transform the company into an environmentally friendly one. As a start, he plans to install solar panels and use solar energy instead of the traditional one. Moreover, his plans do not stop here: he dreams to launch a business in the fisheries area, build a processing cannery and an organic farm for animal husbandry, which would allow him to get the most out of the harvest of his 100 hectares of land.  All this would allow him to create even more jobs and launch new quality services and goods. The entrepreneur prefers not to talk a lot about his plans, but then to realize them, because, according to him, there is a big market in Moldova, and our consumers deserve the best stuffs.

On the eve of the International Youth Day, two young women entrepreneurs from the Republic of Moldova spoke to UN Women about how they managed to start and run their businesses, promoting local, healthy products. Women entrepreneurs increasingly succeed overcoming outdated gender stereotypes pose obstacles for them over the years. This story is about two young women entrepreneurs who started their own businesses in the Republic of Moldova, promoting a healthy lifestyle, and using local products. One of them is Nadejda Hadjivu. The young entrepreneur, founder of the business “Moft Dulce”, came back to the Republic of Moldova after living in the United States of America for a while. That experience inspired her to establish her own enterprise in her home country. She produces peanut butter and healthy chocolate, which does not contain beet sugar, gluten or milk.  “When I came back to Moldova, I noticed that we don’t have a large product assortment. There were just peanut butters containing palm oil, different additives and sugar. Thus, I started producing healthy sweets. I use healthy ingredients, stevia, coconut sugar, products recommended even to children. There are too many low quality food products on our local market”, Nadejda says. Nadejda mostly uses local products, especially hazelnuts. Besides finding raw materials, she undertakes a lot of activities in her company. „I use to buy hazelnuts from a woman who has ecological, very sweet peanuts. I import some cashew nuts and peanuts but the majority of products are local ones. (...) I undertake technological activities, being a production manager, a head of office and an accountant, tracking my business. As the workload increases, a young food technologist helps me. A while ago, we used to produce 50-70 kilograms of peanut butter per hour but the new mill which was bought along with other equipment using the grant from ODIMM and UN Women, can produce up to a ton”, she says. The young entrepreneur says that at the beginning she made a lot of mistakes, as she didn’t have knowledge in business administration. Moreover, she had to make more effort to be taken seriously when she decided to start her business. „I think 80% of my actions were wrong. I started working without necessary knowledge and I learned from my mistakes. I have burned over 100 kilograms of nuts while testing. Many people don’t take you seriously  when you are young, especially when you need to have an official business. It is necessary to be very persistent, and follow your dreams. At the beginning, many people said that it is impossible, that we would close our business but it’s been a year”, Nadejda said. At last, the entrepreneur says that she has the ambition to reach the Romanian market. She believes it is achievable, as she has analyzed the experiences of other local business which managed to do this. Victoria Sobol is another young entrepreneur running a family beekeeping business. Besides promoting a healthy lifestyle, she wants to contribute to mental wellbeing of people who visit the resting place from Bravicea village, Calarasi district. An innovation promoted by „Stupina Codrilor”, the business managed by Victoria, is buzzing therapy, which, according to her, has a beneficial impact on the  mental wellbeing. „We started this activity together with my husband who was a student at the department of apiculture, and myself at the department of finance and economics. We decided to start a business with the aim to have a resting place for people interested in bees’ activities and life. We wanted them to have excursions outdoors, to taste agricultural products, to learn about their benefits, and to undertake buzzing therapy tested by a few entrepreneurs from the Republic of Moldova. It is a successful one, and we decided to start such a business, especially because we have a very good environment for bee development”, the entrepreneur says. The business managed by Victoria and her husband is a complex one. „Besides buzzing therapy, we have accommodation places for our visitors and excursions to apiary with protection equipment. We explore the hives together, and if there is some honey, we extract it together, testing the products we have besides honey. Also, we have little houses for apitherapy. There are places for 2 people who lie down on the bee bed and get relaxed in those little houses. It is a very important moment to forget about all worries, letting the vibrations created by bee buzzing to work on our health and nervous system, as we are all having a stressful period, full of worries”. Victoria and her husband work on equal terms. She said she was encouraged to continue, especially by grant opportunities. „People often ask me how difficult is it to work in an apiary as a woman. I prove every day that a woman can be a beekeeper. We hope to employ more people in the future and extend our business. I should come to fairs and excursions. Sometimes it is quite difficult to manage our time but we try to. We equally share our responsibilities with my husband. We don’t get bored. We both are excited”, Victoria said. The young entrepreneurs are beneficiaries of the UN Women’s regional project ‘Responding to the urgent needs of women and girls in marginalized and vulnerable situation exacerbated by COVID-19 in Europe and Central Asia’ (June 2020 to May 2021), implemented by ODIMM and the financial support of Japan. Svetlana Andrieș, Programme Specialist UN Women Moldova, mentioned: ”Women Economic Empowerment is among the main priority areas of the UN Women work in Moldova as parity is yet to be achieved in the labor market and in the number of women in business. Support women in business and potential entrepreneurs by offering them access to proper education, peer-to-peer support and financial resources is of great need, especially if those women come from an underrepresented group. By joining our forces with ODIMM (SMES development organization) and devoting adequate resources for women’s economic empowerment, including through topping up the national financing for development mechanisms, we can make substantive changes in women’s lives and contribute to the advancement of gender equality in the Republic of Moldova.” According to a research conducted by the National  Bureau of Statistics from the Republic of Moldova in 2018, supported by UN Women Moldova, UNDP Moldova and Sweden, the potential of women entrepreneurs is not harnessed, especially in the fields where women may come with technological innovations which could improve the way we develop the society, in all aspects of life. However, having ambitions to develop and be well-known on local and international market, women who decide to enter this field are sure that efforts made by them are essential for the development of local and national economy.