Early intervention centers, like the one working in Criuleni town, which offers support services to children with disabilities starting with the youngest age, should exist in a number of regions, said Daniela Leahu, manager of the project “Better social services through a sustainable partnership between civil society and the government”.
In a news conference at IPN, Daniela Leahu said the early intervention services should be as close to the beneficiaries as possible. “The development of this Center can be undertaken as a good practice in the other districts that want such a service so that the parents and children there have such services closer to them,” she stated.
The public association “Femeia şi Copilul-Protecţie şi Sprijin” (“Woman and Child-Protection and Support) of Criuleni is one of the 31 local civil society organizations that benefited from grants in the framework of the project “Better social services through a sustainable partnership between civil society and the government” that is financed by the EU and is implemented by Soros Foundation Moldova. “The total value of the grant program launched in 2018 was of €1.5 million. There were funded 31 SCOs of 23 districts. The money was allocated for developing social services for persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities and for children from vulnerable groups. Currently, these 31 organizations are improving and extending 42 social services, including these early intervention center,” stated Daniela Leahu
She noted that besides financial resources, the 31 SCOs benefitted from a broad empowerment program, extended and continuous support in managing projects and, during the project implementation period of almost two years, benefitted also from technical assistance from the team of the extended project.
Ina Cazacu, project coordinator at the public association “Femeia şi Copilul-Protecţie şi Sprijin”, said the experience of implementing this project shows that the role of the partners that develop this early intervention service is considerable. “In the Republic of Moldova, such services were first developed by the Early Intervention Center “Voinicel”, which is our partner and which offers assistance and mentoring in training specialists. There are initiatives to develop such services also in Bălţi and Cahul, but each service adopts an own activity organization method,” stated Ina Cazacu.
Liliana Soltan, the mother of a child with disabilities, who is the beneficiary of the Center, said that she has 16 years’ experience of educating and looking after a child with disabilities and tries to lend a hand to parents in a similar situation who are at the start. The parents should intervene at the child’s early age and should be helped in the education of their child. They should not become scared and should understand how they can help their child.
The Early Intervention Center “Lăstărel” in Criuleni town offers support services to children with disabilities from the youngest age. It provides services to families with children aged between 0 and 3 from the districts of Criuleni and Dubăsari.
