Moldovan students will be taught techniques for implementing alternative methods of solving conflicts. The mediation and probation counselors of the Institute for Penal Reform will give lessons on mediation in the schools and penitentiaries that have community justice centers in their neighborhood, Info-Prim Neo reports. Cristina Beldiga, project coordinator at the Institute for Penal Reform, says that such teaching and informative methods are very important for students, part of the efforts to combat juvenile delinquency. According to Beldiga, the school is a micro-cosmos of the community where the children are not spared from conflicts. Beldiga said that such activities began to be carried out in a number of Moldovan schools in a move to prevent conflicts. For the time being, the instruments for school mediation have not been worked out yet. The Institute for Penal Reform is working on a draft guidebook with pieces of advice for minors. The penal mediation is at a more advanced stage. Cristina Beldiga said that the Institute printed The Mediator’s Book and a curriculum regarding the training of mediators. The first activities related to mediation in criminal cases started in 2001. The working group set up then drafted a law that was adopted on February 14, 2008. The law regulates the mediator’s activity and describes the institute of mediation and how it works. Relevant practical results have been achieved since 2005, Cristina Beldiga says. 182 cases have been mediated, 70% of which were solved amiably. The given cases are closed or the charges are dropped, depending on the phase when the cases begin to be mediated. The offenders/accused are exempted from punishment because they manage to repair the damage caused to the victim, the cited source said. The mediation is a tool offering counseling and remedies to conflict situations until the courts takes a decision – since the legal action is taken until the sentence is pronounced. Mediation activities are carried out in Chisinau city and in the districts of Ungheni, Cahul, Telenesti, Balti, and Falesti. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Moldovan police are now supervising 4,510 minor delinquents and 517 vulnerable families. The children come into conflict with the law, influenced mainly by economic and social factors. About 80% of the minor offenders come from socially vulnerable families. The difficult financial situation contributes to increased juvenile delinquency. Another cause why the minors break the law is the fact that the parents do not play their traditional roles of protecting and educating the children in a family environment. About 98,912 children are left without supervision. Some 71,096 of them have only one parent, while the others have none.