About 300 vagrant Chisinau children were admitted to the Temporary Placement Centre for Minors

About 300 children who roamed Chisinau streets were admitted this winter to the Temporary Placement Centre for Minors, subordinated to the Interior Ministry, Info-Prim Neo reports. Since the beginning of this year, about 200 vagrant children were given shelter in the Placement Centre. Other 90 children without parental supervision were placed in December. Only 40% of the minors taken by the Centre are from Chisinau city, Centre’s deputy head Neli Lelenco says. Once arrived in the Placement Centre, the children are offered medical help, rehabilitation, psychological and social assistance, Lelenco said. In most cases, these children suffer from malnutrition, pediculosis, scabies and other skin illnesses and less of respiratory diseases. “As strange as it may sound, these children are more immune to respiratory diseases than children from good families”, Neli Lilenco said. Fortunately, Neli Lelenco added, there were no cases of hypothermia among vagrant children, thanks to the actions taken by the Interior Ministry in the cold season aimed at tracking children in difficulty. The Placement Centre shelters the minors for a period of maximum 6 months. Usually, the children are taken back to their biological or extended families or to residential institutions from where they escaped. Regretfully about 7-10% of them return to the institution at least once. At present, 15 children are given shelter in the Temporary Placement Centre for Minors, of whom 6 were brought from the streets.