A number of public organizations that form part of the Alliance of Active NGOs in Social Protection of the Child and Family called on the politicians to include commitments referring to child protection in their electoral programs. In a news conference at IPN, the Alliance’s head Stela Vasluian said that every child needs the support and protection of society and the authorities.
A number of recommendations for the elected officials were made in the news conference. Liliana Rotaru, head of the Association “Child. Community. Family” Moldova (CCFM), which forms part of the Alliance, said that the number of beneficiaries of the deinstitutionalization reform must be extended.
Services should be developed to prevent the separation of children from parents and to provide alternatives to deinstitutionalization. The child protection NGOs also recommend making investments in the professionalism of the employees of the child protection system and redirecting the budget savings to preventive services and alternative, family-based childcare services.
These recommendations were included in a document that will be submitted to all the parliamentary and extraparliamentary parties so that they analyze them and transpose them to their electoral platforms.
Representative of the Alliance Viorica Postolaki said that every child has the right to grow up and be educated in a family environment. “No child deserves being raised outside the family. This is the message that should be disseminated for the whole society to realize the responsibility they have towards every child who is institutionalized,” she stated.
According to the data of the Alliance, there were 11,500 children in residential institutions in 2006, but the figure was halved by 2012.
