Iana Matei

Iana Matei is a Romanian activist who founded Reaching Out Romania, an organization to seek out and rehabilitate victims of forced prostitution. Reaching Out Romania operates the House of Treasure, which is a shelter specifically reserved for former victims of human trafficking.

On January 20, 2010, Matei was named "European of the Year" by Reader's Digest.

Iana Matei's book was first published in 2010 by OH! Editions in France under the title "A vendre, Mariana, 15 ans".

Early life

Matei was born in Orăștie. Her mother was a pentathlete, and her father was a football coach. When Matei was three years of age, her family moved to Bucharest due to her father's work. The family later moved to the industrial city of Pitești.

Matei speaks four languages, her native Romanian, Serbian, English, and French. During her studies of wall painting, Matei met her husband Dmitri while restoring Ghica Tei palace. The two married and had Matei's first son, Ștefan. Matei later divorced Dmitri due to domestic violence, abuse and alcohol abuse issues.

Matei lived during the period of the Soviet occupation of Romania. In 1989 at the start of the Romanian Revolution, Matei participated in riots and other protest activities against the Communist government. After an incident where Matei lost her handbag with her identity documents during a protest in University Square, she believed that it was no longer safe to stay in the country and fled. She left her son with her mother and illegally traveled to Serbia, where she was captured and sentenced to twenty days of imprisonment. During her confinement, Matei went on a hunger strike insisting that a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visit her and acknowledge her presence. After her sentence was completed, Matei was relocated to a Serbian refugee camp, where she was hired as a translator for UNHCP. Matei's son reunited with her from Romania and the two moved to Australia, and have become involved with humanitarian work.

Humanitarian work

Matei was studying psychology for a diploma. The topic she chose to study for her work was unhoused children. Matei interviewed children she found in the streets of Australia. At first, out of pity, she gave them a few sandwiches, but on her following visit, she brought pasta and fed about fifteen people. This continued for a few months and extended to much more than just field research. In 1994, Matei founded "Reaching Out", an organization that helps street kids in Australia.

When Matei visited her ill mother in Romania, she found the same problem as she did in Australia, with children living on the streets of cities. She spent some time in Europe and returned to Australia, still thinking about the unhoused children of Romania. In 1998, Matei and her son returned to Pitești and began working on behalf of homeless children.

In 1999, Matei was confronted with human trafficking for the first time, when local policemen contacted her, asking to bring some clothes for prostitutes they had arrested. Matei brought food and clothes for the girls, only to realize they were all underage and forced to be prostitutes. Matei became enraged, because the police officers refused to acknowledge that three girls were underage victims of human trafficking. Matei registered her new, non-governmental organization "Reaching Out", opened her shelter "The House of Treasure" and has been fighting sex slavery since its creation.