Italy is the top destination country in the European Union for victims of commercial sexual exploitation. It is also used as a transit country for victims coming from Eastern Europe and West Africa. The high demand and lenient laws make it a perfect place for this criminal activity to flourish.

 

With the desire to respond to this, Vite Trasformate was formed in Bologna, Italy in 2011 as a ministry of Nuova Vita Church . It all began with prayer. Many years before our team was created, our church’s pastor had a burden for the “prostitutes” he saw every night standing right outside our church and all around the city of Bologna. We do not actually call the women prostitutes, we call them Treasures because they are precious women treasured by God!

 

After many years of faithful prayer, a few people gathered together to pray for the treasures and then research the problem of sexual exploitation in Italy. We were shocked by the vastness of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and deeply grieved. The Lord did not leave us overwhelmed by the hopelessness, but instead stirred our hearts to bring the light of Jesus into the darkness.

 

Our first street outreach took place on December 10th, 2011. We have been going out consistently since then. There have been many tears of grief and many tears of joy over the years. Jesus has been our hope and continues to be our hope as we wait for Him to return and put away evil forever and make all things right!