Moldova They have the right to a better childhood

Project : Moldova 28 Jul 2010 | poverty protection systems

Today, Moldova is labelled the “poorest country in Europe”. This statement is substantiated by the UNDP statistic data showing that in 2007 the HDI for Moldova was 0.720 that ranked Moldova on the 117 place out of 182 countries . Poverty, economical and financial crisis, political instability, unemployment, social insecurity and massive migration are the main problems feeding the country’s stagnation.

According to the IOM statistic data over a half of million of Moldovan people reside outside the country and more than 1.5 million of Moldovan families are living in households receiving remittances. As the result, many of children throughout Moldova are left without parental care. For the most part, the kids remain in care of grandparents, relatives and neighbours. In worst cases, they end up in shelters. Therefore, missing the childhood and facing the adult life they are not prepared for, these children are in group of risk of becoming victims of abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

Children left behind

The following story of Maria, 17-year-old is an unfortunate illustration of the above mentioned. Maria and her 3 brothers have been living for more than 3 years with their aunt in the village of Budesti, near Chisinau. On the question about their parents, Maria answered that for more than 5 years their mother is working in Italy, carrying for the elder people. Their father left the family many years ago and never showed interest towards the fate of his children. All this time Maria’ s mother was faithful in sending money home (about 400 euro) designated for the food and education of her children, as well as for keeping up their household. In spite of the fact that mother and daughter see each other once a year, their relationships are pretty good. For Maria mother remains the nearest and dearest person, from whom she receives love, support and understanding. The situation is somewhat different though, when it comes to the relationship between Maria and her aunt. According to the girl, their relations are a bit strained; there are times when Maria doesn’t see patience or understanding from her aunt, which is caused by the difference of age.

Those, being aware on Maria’s situation and wishing to protect her from the risks of becoming victim of abuse, exploitation and/or trafficking, the Child Protection Unit (CPU) – multidisciplinary team created and supported by the FACT CPSN project within the Local Council for Protection of Child’s Rights (local public authority) determined girl’s participation in the group activities for children, carried out by the FACT CPSN project. With the help of FACT CPSN’s activities, Maria went a long way from being a shy and quiet teenager; now she has grown in self-confidence, developed communication skills and simply got lots of practical skills that her mother couldn’t give her in time. It is worth to note that in case of Maria the FACT CPSN’s group activities for children are more prevention-sensitive and aim basically to protect such children from all kind of abuses, exploitation and trafficking.

“I have no friends because I’m poor”

Unfortunately the massive exodus of Moldovan people abroad and children left behind are just the consequence of a deeper problem that hits the country – poverty. The phenomenon affects basically large or single-parents families, agricultural workers and rural population. This is the case of Andrei, 17-year-old boys living in the same village of Budesti. This year Andrei has graduated the high school, but he isn’t given the leaving certificate, because he has to pay 40 lei for the school renovation, which he doesn’t have. Andrei is living alone with his mother, who wasn’t working for the last few years because of poor health. Andrei has an elder brother, who is 22 and who at the moment is in jail. Andrei has a father too, but he has left the family when the boy wasn’t 5 yet, never since he was not interested in the destiny of his children. When talking to Andrei he is shy and not very sociable. Andrei doesn’t have friends. From the words of the psychologist of the community centre of the village where took place activities of the FACT CPSN project , we found out, that Andrei deliberately has isolated himself of his peers, «because he is poor».

In 2007 Andrei took part to the FACT CPSN project of Terre des hommes. The attention of the Child Protection Unit’ team (CPU) on the boy was due to the difficult situation of Andrei. The boy became a victim of physical abuse from the former partner of his mother, which was severely beating Andrei during a long period of time. When he was able to escape from his adoptive father, he was running away to his neighbours, which were hiding him, feeding from time to time and taking care of him. In the summer of 2007 the FACT CPSN project created a group of 15 children with special needs, whose parents are either alcoholics, either psychologically unstable. Into this summer project were involved 4 young volunteer girls, which went through training, carried out by the representatives of the FACT technical team. During the three summer months the volunteers were intensively dealing with this group of children, part of which was Andrei,- is telling Anastasia, the director of the community centre, where the activities took place.

The activities of the FACT CPSN project are oriented on the individual needs of every identified child. In the case of Andrei, a special attention was given to the work with the psychologist, who helped to correctly evaluate the psychological state of the child, identify the problems and complexes, which Andrei was facing. After a long and intensive therapeutic work of the psychologist, the boy showed progress in communication and started making friends.

Besides the work with the psychologist, the FACT CPSN project provides also collective activities for children, helping such kids as Andrei to learn to freely express their opinion, become a part of the team and get social skills. Unfortunately Andrei’s mother didn’t take part to the collective activities for parents, which are also carried out by the facilitators of FACT, which aim to help parents to improve their relationship with children, and help them understand the importance of the participation of parents to the children’s lives.

Andrei was also provided with material assistance (clothes, school gear and payment for the rent of the school books). After 3 months of therapeutic work, collective activities with children, the specialists of the CPU have evaluated the situation of Andrei, taking into consideration his emotional and psychological state, social and communicational skills, extent of integration into the group and many other aspects. We have seen real progress in the behaviour of the child. And this makes us happy, – tells Anastasia, the director of the Child’s community centre of Budesti.

Therefore, Budesti is just one out of hundreds of villages in Moldova that has such stories. Only the time will show how the situation will change for these two children with such different fate, but now is the time to act, to help Moldovan children to have a better childhood (NM).