52 family-type childcare homes from Moldova will each receive 1,000 lei in monthly financial aid from the household appliance store chain Bomba, Info-Prim Neo reports. On this occasion, Minister of Education and Youth Victor Tvircun thanked the company for its very welcome intention to support these family-type children’s homes, hoping that other companies will follow this admirable example. Speaking on behalf of the store chain Bomba, Svetlana Catana, head of the marketing and advertising department, took a bow for the efforts made by the educator-parents who have taken on a very difficult task of looking after these poor children, deprived of parental love. According to Svetlana Catana, the project is planned for a half-year period. The financial aid will be transferred monthly to each of the 52 recipients on a debit card, issued free of charge by Eximbank Gruppo Veneto Banca. One thousand lei for such a home means a lot, said Galina Mura, educator-parent from the village of Joloboc, Orhei district. A lot is 10 lei, too, when you don’t have it, added the woman, eyes in tears. In 17 years since the Mura family accepted to become such a home, 16 children have enjoyed its love and affection. Some of them got married and have become loving parents. On behalf of the big family of childcare homes, Galina Mura awarded a diploma and gave flowers to Ana Porcesu from Drochia. For 5 years now, this brave woman has been a mother to several children with special needs. The family-type childcare home is a community-based service that provides an alternative to residential institutions. It is meant to be a genuine family parenting three up to seven children, including biological ones. The couples that accept to open a family-type childcare home in their own house receive monthly salaries and earn entries into their employment record cards. Today, there are 52 such homes in Moldova, while at the begging of 2007 their number was 22. The development of alternative services is one of the priorities of the residential childcare system reform implemented by the Government of Moldova. The reform’s aim is to reduce the number of children that grow and develop apart from the family by 50% until 2012 by reintegrating them into the natural or extended family and by preventing their institutionalisation. In addition, the Government aims to restructure all the residential childcare institutions under a comprehensive reorganisation plan.