A pan-European campaign entitled “Opening Doors for Europe’s Children” was launched in Chisinau. This supports the strengthening of families and promotes transition from residential care to family- and community-based one for all the children of Europe and was launched in the European Parliament in Brussels on December 1. It is a partnership between 5 international organisations and civil society across 15 European countries, IPN reports.
In Moldova, the campaign is coordinated by CCF Moldova – Child, Community, Family, which is the representative of Hope and Homes for Children of the UK, and the Alliance of Active NGOs in the Field of the Social Protection of Child and Family.
CCF Moldova Communication Coordinator Lina Botnaru said the campaign builds the capacity of civil society to leverage existing EU policy recommendations and coordination tools, as well as EU funding programmes to put support progress at national level. In the Republic of Moldova, the campaign will center on several objectives of national interest. One of these is to continue the reform of the residential child care system and to implement the child protection strategy.
Another objective is to monitor and influence the public costs related to deinstitutionalization. The coordinators of the campaign aims to transmit the message that, in conditions of economic crisis, money should not be saved by reducing spending on social services, because this can cause more vulnerability. “We support the decentralization reform in the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, we must make sure that the family and children are not negatively affected, while the national programs are focused on family support services and alternative family-based services,” says another message disseminated within the campaign.
Iuliana Stratan, projects coordinator at the EU Delegation to Moldova, said the European Union promotes the deinstitutionalization of children by strengthening the protection systems and creating community services. To successfully implement this campaign, everyone’s political commitment is needed. Also, financial resources are needed to ensure this transition, but experience and good practices that can be borrowed are also needed.
UNICEF Representative to Moldova Sergiu Rusanovski said the deinstitutionalization tendencies witnessed in Moldova are gladdening, but there are yet difficult cases. Significant progress was made in preventing abandonment and separation of the child from the family. “UNICEF will continue to be near the children of the Republic of Moldova. UNICEF will support the Government, will create partnerships with the European Union and with all the other interested partners so that we do not extend this process too much,” stated Sergiu Rusanovski.
Corneliu Tarus, the representative of the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, said the process of reforming the residential childcare system in Moldova started in 2007. Since the start of the reform, the number of children placed in institutions decreased from about 13,000 to approximately 1,500. Almost 1,000 of them are in placement centers on a temporary basis, while the rest are in residential institutions, being children with disabilities.
