The day community centers for children and youth managed by the Chisinau Division for the Protection of Children’s Rights are attended by almost 3,400 children who are included in the lists, but these are open to all those interested. Here, the children and young people can take part in over 120 specific activities, including sports ones. Information about the activity of the centers was presented in the July 16 meeting of officials of municipal services and divisions, IPN reports.
The Division’s head Lucia Caciuc said there are 42 such centers in Chisinau, but only 29 of these work now. Eight were closed for extensive repair works, while five for current repair works. The community centers for children and youth provide 124 tourist, technical, artistic, handicraft and sports activities. There are also volunteering activities that involve ex-beneficiaries and not only.
Over 740 children of the beneficiaries are from risk groups, while 489 are from families where one or both of the parents work abroad. Over 100 children have a deviant behavior, while the rest abandoned school or have more difficult behavior. The activities are also attended by children from the streets. “We cannot cover all the categories and not all the beneficiaries are children who should attend these centers, but we try to engage them in useful things,” stated Lucia Caciuc, adding the necessary equipment is also a problem, but effort is made to diversify the activities for children of different ages and with disabilities.
She noted most of the centers are situated in basements or on the ground floor, but this problem cannot be yet overcome. Many of the centers are in a poor state as they are often flooded or the networks yield. The water supply, sewerage and heating systems need to be extensively repaired. The centers can be entered through the yard or the stair of the block with a separate entrance and dwellers complain about noise.
“We do not yet give up and try to reanimate our centers and recently we launched an environmental project entitled “Show that you care”. With the common effort of employees, parents and children who attend these centers, we managed to make the areas around the centers and inside them more attractive,” said Lucia Caciuc.
