The day service for children aged between four months and three years, which is the first of the kind in Moldova and was opened by the Chisinau City Hall several years ago, is a free service designed to prevent child abandonment owing to financial problems. Contacted by IPN, Valentina Canariov, head of the Family Reintegration and Adoption Section of the Chisinau Child Rights Protection Division, said the service was created within the municipal placement and rehabilitation center for children of an early age that was transformed into a mixed center with multiple services. This contributed to an essential reduction in the number of children in residential placement.
In the free areas of the former municipal placement center, three groups of children were already set up and one more is to be created. Now there are 36 children in the service and, according to Valentina Canariov, this is now very popular. There are no free places. The children are brought here in the morning and are taken in the evening. During the day, they are involved in practically the same activities as at an ordinary kindergarten. Besides the educator and educator assistant, the service also involves a medical assistant.
In order to integrate the children into this service, the parents must go to the sector child protection division. Valentina Canariov said anyone can use this service if they have a low salary and cannot cope financially and there is no one who could care for their child. The service was created to prevent the institutionalization of children and to reintegrate into the family those who are in a protection residential institution.
The day service for children is intended not only for single parents, but also for complete families that cannot cope financially and complete families that do not manage on their incomes and both of the parents have to work to raise the child, including families with many children. A large part of the parents who bring the children into the service do not have where to live and start to look for a place to stay and a job when they are able to leave the child in safe care.
