Women with babies in their arms begging on the street, at the entrance to churches, near underground passages or in front of shops can be daily seen in Chisinau. The number of such beggars is higher in summer. Sometimes these kids eat nothing all day long and sit in the sun. The authorities call on the people not to encourage such a practice and not to give money to these women as the place of babies is not on the street. There are specialized services where these children can be left during the day so that the parents could work.
Rodica Terehovski, acting head of the Chisinau Children’s Rights Protection Division, said 80% of the women who beg with babies in their arms are not from the city. They come to the capital because they think beginning is an easier method of making money. Some of them come from families where alcohol is abused and only a small part of the earned money goes to satisfy the needs of children.
There are four temporary placement centers for children in difficulty in Chisinau municipality. The children, sometimes together with the mother, are taken to one of these centers where they are given food and clothes and other basic necessities and can stay there for 45 days. In the period, specialists work with the mother to prevent this from returning to the street. They work also with the other members of the biological family, with the child’s father and with the relatives up to the fourth degree so as to identity the family where the child can be placed under guardianship.
If there is a written statement that nobody can take the child under guardianship, the tutelage authority requests the court to deprive the persons of parental rights and the child is placed in the residential service. Since January 1, 2017, 14 such lawsuits were filed. The key task is yet to find solutions and to reintegrate the child into the biological family or a substitute family. Expert NGOs are asked to help the given families, including financially.
In February, the Chisinau Children’s Rights Protection Division launched the awareness-raising campaign “Do not give money” within which the people were urged not to give money to begging children, but to inform the police on 902 or the tutelage authority on 022242702. There were also set up special crèches where mothers can leave the children until evening and go to work. Regrettably, when warnings are issued, these women disappear form the street, but later reappear there. The persons who give money should realize that this way they do not help these children, but actually condemn them to being on the street in inappropriate conditions, while the women are stimulated to return to beg on the street.
In a response given to an inquiry made by IPN, the Chisinau Police Division said the persons who beg on the streets of Chisinau cannot be penalized because this violation is not specified by law. When women with children in their arms are found begging, the district police officer and the minors safety inspector of the Police Inspectorate are informed about this. The local public authorities are also notified so that they take attitude. These women often argue that they do not have who to leave their child with and thus take this with them to beg.
In the first half of 2017, the municipal Children’s Rights Protection Division in concert with the Child Safety Bureau staged a number of raids in Chisinau and identified 48 children in situations of risk. Four of these were from Chisinau municipality, while the rest from other parts of Moldova.
Maria Procopciuc, IPN
