A counseling school called “Open Hearts” was opened in Chisinau. Volunteers are now being recruited to provide advice to persons in difficulty online, IPN reports, quoiting the U.S. Embassy in Moldova.

The school was launched though the agency of the Alumni Small Grants Program of the U.S. Embassy and is implemented by Liuba Ceban, who heads the organization “Altruism Moldova” and is a graduate of The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program.

In the launch, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau Martin McDowell encouraged all the partners, citizens, civil society and the media outlets to support this campaign. “Only by our common efforts, we can contribute to reducing the number of suicides,” stated the official.

“The idea of this school appeared in my mind in 2016, when I started to look for solutions to the need to involve more persons, including from outside the country, to become counselors. I consulted different similar projects in such countries as Basil, Lithuania, Denmark, the U.S. and the Befrienders Worldwide Network that brings together over 40 centers from all over the world that rely predominantly on volunteers,” stated the project’s founder Liuba Ceban.

The school’s program was created based on the methodology donated by a similar center from the U.S. The activity was designed in accordance with the methodology of the Befrienders Worldwide Network. The counseling school “Open Hearts” will lay emphasis on the importance of creating a space for emotional support culture and art in Moldova.