Project on the field Moldova

Terre des hommes is active in the Republic of Moldova since 2004. It works towards the improvement of social follow-up and protection of Moldovan children in vulnerable situations within and outside Moldova. The implementation of projects is done thanks to its partners as: SDC, Medicor Foundation, OSCE, UNICEF and UEFA.

The aim is to increase the capacities of all actors involved, including children that are taught to protect themselves against abuse and exploitation. Three projects are implemented in this framework:

1. The Child Protection Safety Net (CPSN) project

CPSN represents a community model of psychosocial, child-oriented protection aimed to mobilize the capacity of local stakeholders in the districts of Soroca, Ungheni, Făleşti and Chişinău. CPSN strives to ensure technical support and capacity building of local, district and national child protection authorities in order to guarantee protection and development to children at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation and trafficking (ANET).

This will be achieved through the promotion of a social work, based on the individual follow-up of the child, and a more systematic analysis of the relationship inside the family. Additionally to this approach, Tdh promotes group activities involving the children and their parents.

The purpose is to improve the capacities of the Moldovan Child Welfare system to improve the child-parents’ relationships, to address the vulnerabilities of the child and enhance his/her skills school performance and further development.
In the following project phase of 2010 – 2012, CPSN is focused on the application of model of intervention previously developed in all the municipalities of the 4 districts and in the development of a functional referral system of the children who need a more specialized type of intervention at the district or national levels. In 2012 we expect that the main elements of the CPSN model of action will have been integrated nationally as a basis for the establishment of a functional national child protection system.

CPSN at local level

At the local level the challenge is to strengthen the capacities of local social workers to work with vulnerable children. Tdh is also promoting cooperation among all the local stakeholders involved in child protection area.

The integration of children and their parents in the psychosocial group activities also requires an improvement of the capacities of the local actors (members from the school system) – and logistical support.

To mobilize local actors, Tdh chose to rely on the only committee specifically focused on children and legally recognized in each municipality, called the ‘Local Councils of the Protection of Child Rights’. The re-activation of these interdisciplinary groups, integration of new local actors and social assistance as a manager of these groups permit better identification and monitoring of children in vulnerable situations, in general and in ANET situations, particularly.

These actors are also empowered to organize preventive community activities. CPSN promotes the organization of group activities for children and for parents, as well as joint activities for parents and children. These actions aim to improve the relationships between parents and children, as well as to tackle the everlasting integration difficulties between generations.

The Role of Schools in CPSN

In order to implement the psychosocial approach in case management, enhancing the protection of children at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation and trafficking, the school inspectors will supervise the animators and facilitators responsible of the group activities whilst the social assistant Supervisors follow the Community social assistants (active in Local Councils of the Protection of Child Rights). It is focused on technical support and capacity building of local actors, including school inspectors.

An important goal of the future is to ensure that methodologies for group activities for both parents and children are included in the curricula of the school monitors.

2. FACT Transnational Action Project

The FACT Project is a Transnational Action in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family as well as the International Organization for Migration. The project contributes to the establishment of partnership structures among child protection services of the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. This partnership aims to ensure protection of Moldova non-accompanied and separated children, that are identified in the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

Protection measures in the Russian Federation and Ukraine are ensured through the establishment of actions of accompanying the identified children in these countries and during the process of the examination of their case. We work with the guardianship authorities of the 3 countries to improve the quality of these repatriation cases. These authorities are also involved in setting up individual assessments of these applications to be guided solely by the best interests of the child. If the guardianship authority of the Republic of Moldova and destination countries consider that the best interests of the child is reintegration in Moldova, Tdh guarantees that the processes of repatriation will guarantee the protection of the child and assure the follow up of the cases.

3. MOVE

MOVE project was launched by Tdh in 2008 with the support of UEFA. Thanks to an in-depth transfer of competencies, it aims at improving the psychosocial and methodological skills of a number of professionals (animators, teachers, educators, social workers, etc.) working with children. It uses a methodology based on experimentation and feedback with games and sports as tools to reinforce children personal and social skills such as cooperation, trust, respect, positive communication, responsibility, etc. In order to make this methodology sustainable, people trained through MOVE project are going to be integrated in the implementation of CPSN group activities.

Real Life

Maria (47) has 4 children and is separated, without any means of livelihood. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to get a decent living in Moldova, she crossed the border of Italy illegally. For more than 5 years, Maria took care of elderly people in Italy, out of which she worked illegally for 2.5 years, consequently had no opportunity to see her children. All this time, the 4 children were entrusted to the care of Maria’s sister, living in a small village. She faithfully sent her money (about 400€) designated for the food and education of the children.

Yana, the 17–year-old daughter of Maria, had a difficult relation with her aunt. It was emotionally difficult for her to accept the separation from mother, especially in this age. To assist Yana, the social worker of the village trained by Terre des Hommes (Tdh) has integrated her in the activities for children. Through psychosocial group activities and an individual monitoring done by the state social assistant, Yana went a long way and improved her capacity of resilience to better accept the separation from her mother and developed some new communication skills that help her to open a new dialogue with her aunt.

Contact

Roman POZNANSKI
Terre des hommes, Lausanne – Switzerland
Country Representative in the Republic of Moldova
Office: Kogălniceanu St. 81, 1-2 /2009 Chisinau, Moldova
Tel office: +373 22 23 89 59, +373 22 24 16 64
Fax: +373 22 23 79 68
Email: rpo@tdh.ch