About 60 employees of municipal institutions - social workers, teachers and psychologists - will work in all sectors of Chisinau to identify refugee children and their companions, who live in foster homes or families, to provide information, support and assistance depending on their specific needs. Refugee communities will be informed about the specialized services provided by municipal institutions, the Chisinau City Hall said in a press release.
The campaign will have several stages. The first is to gather information, so that beneficiaries understand what services they can receive and providers can find out what problems refugees face.
Mayor Ion Ceban highlighted the active involvement of municipal institutions in managing the refugee crisis in Chisinau, stressing that “all municipal institutions have provided professional support and created the necessary conditions in temporary placement centers for refugees.”
International organizations also continue to support the Republic of Moldova in its emergency response to the refugee crisis, so that every child has the best protection and assistance. The launched campaign will especially benefit refugee children at risk, who will receive assistance in obtaining identity documents and asylum. In addition to representing the interests and rights of children and reporting cases of violence, neglect, exploitation or human trafficking on the Children’s Phone, there is an urgent need to monitor the situation of each child and prevent their separation from parents or guardians,” said the Head of the USAID Mission to Moldova, Scott Hocklander.
Over 300 children benefit from non-formal education in creative centers, extracurricular programs, community centers for children and young people, day centers in the capital. There are also more than 3,700 families in Chisinau who have hosted refugees. For two months, the Patria Lukoil Refugee Center has registered over 2,500 requests for humanitarian aid, of which 8,566 have been submitted by families caring for about 5,600 children.
There are over 97 thousand Ukrainian refugees on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, of whom over 47 thousand are children. Only 1830 Ukrainian children are enrolled in general education institutions, of whom 1120 children in Chisinau.
