The National House of Social Insurance (CNAS) will organize seminars in all the country’s districts as part of an information campaign initiated in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The campaign titled “Be an informed parent, know your rights” is intended for young families and will be conducted during January 19 – February 28, IPN reports.

The head of the Parliament’s commission on social protection, health and family Dan Perciun in the opening of the event said such a campaign is very necessary as many parents do not know their rights.

“The idea was to come with additional support for the young families. I refer to the allowance of 1,000 lei a month from which all the children benefit up to the age of two. We created a new formula for the child benefit, which is shorter. As from next year, the parents can choose to be paid child benefit up to the child’s age of one year and two months. Earlier, the periods were up to two years and two months and up to three years. Parental leave can be taken for a period of up to a year, as opposed to 59 days until now,” stated Dan Perciun.

Particular changes related to the maternity leave were made last year. “Earlier, it was mandatory for women to go on maternity leave as from the 30th week of pregnancy. Now it is up to the woman to decide when to do this. It was a common practice when the women resigned for the maternity benefit to be calculated based on the husband’s salary for the benefit to be higher. The latest changes enable to calculate the maternity benefit either based on the salary of the husband or based on the salary of the wife,” noted the MP.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection Alexei Buzu said the fathers should be equally involved in children’s life. That’s why it is the duty of the state to offer more possibilities for the parents to be able to combine work and family life. “The policies should respond to the needs of families. We will also take other measures to make work more flexible. We are considering the possibility of offering a state bonus of both of the parents use this leave. This year we need to make access to childcare services more flexible. We will make effort to encourage more employers to create such services,” stated the minister.

He noted the organization of family crèches is a priority for the authorities. “All these measures reduce child poverty, increase productivity of salary earners, offer employers more possibilities to find qualified personnel,” said Alexei Buzu.

CNAS director general Elena Țîbîrnă said the goal of the campaign is to inform the population, with the young families being the target group. “We every time are the institution whose goal and obligation are to inform the citizens about the new amendments to the legislation. The young parents are the target of the information campaign. The goal is to be closer to the citizens. By an information session will be held in each district center and the timetable of these sessions can be already seen on the CNAS’ website,” she stated.

Natalia Plugaru, UNFPA Moldova Deputy Representative, noted that the needs of the families are very different and the last changes made to the legislation offer the parents more options. “The families will be able to choose the best variant: who to go on childcare leave, when to return to work, who will assume responsibility to negotiate the work program with the employer. For us, it is important to respond to the needs of the population through the programs we support,” said Natalia Plugaru.

According to her, there are studies and analyses showing that the involvement of fathers is very beneficial to the growth of children. If the fathers take an active part in the life of children, academic performance grows by 40% and the child is less predisposed to become involved in vice.