Three years ago, the Center for Child’s Rights, with the financial assistance of the international organization the Children’s Legal Centre, the British University of Essex, has launched the hotline for child protection – 930 222. The aims of this service are to provide consultancy about the protection and promotion of children’s rights, to direct the children and parents to the competent bodies, to inform the authorities and law enforcement bodies about the cases when the child’s rights are violated. Info-Prim Neo conducted an interview with the legal consultant of the Center for Child’s Rights in charge of the hotline, Marina Revenco, in order to find out what results were achieved through the service. [- How many calls have been made to the hotline during the three months of activity?] - Not many people know about the hotline for the moment. The number of calls depends on the publicity made for the service. We receive by 17 calls a month on average, but the number of calls began to increase after we launched a publicity spot on a commercial radio station. [- Who are the persons that contact you more often and what violations they report?] - Both parents and children as well as relatives and neighbors contact us. The parents usually inquire about the allowances that the state should provide to their children or to socially-vulnerable families. The children ask about their rights, put different questions about how their rights are and can be protected. There are cases when the children report violations of their rights. For instance, the children ask if their parents have the right to take them to work in the field. Of course, we explain to them that they have the right to take part in different educative works that can be useful to them and can help them acquire different life habits. We tell the parents that they must not exploit the children through work. [- Were there anonymous calls?] - Yes. Usually, the anonymous calls are made by relatives or neighbors that inform about cases when the parents violate children’s rights, namely about the fact that the parents neglect or exploit the children. In such cases, we contact the local public authorities and ask them to carry out investigations or the Center’s lawyer travels to the settlement to see how the situation can be remedied on the spot. [- Are there problems with the authorities?] - We have notified local public authorities from different regions of the country. The recent cases reported in June concerned the distribution of places in kindergartens. Some of the authorities refuse to distribute places for different reasons and the Center intervened to see if the reasons were well-founded. Certain mayors’ offices refuse to allocate allowances to which the socially-vulnerable families are entitled or postpone different acts, such as the granting of guardianship. [- Can you tell us about a case when a child or a family was helped?] - We have already solved several cases. For example, we dealt with a family in Nisporeni, where the mother works in Italy and the two minor children remained with the father. As the neighbors said, the father did not look after the children. The Center’s lawyer Octavian Varlan went to the town, examined the situation, spoke with the children’s father, the settlement’s mayor and the social worker. As a result of discussions, the father understood that he can be deprived of the parental rights and stopped drinking alcohol. Certainly, the social worker from the settlement monitors this family, pays visits to it, discusses with the minors who say that their father became more responsible and looks after them. [ - Do you monitor the cases in which you got earlier involved to help the child, family?] - Of course. First of all, we analyze the results achieved. After a certain period, the beneficiaries contact us or we contact them to find out if the situation has changed, if there are problems or they have questions.