Government publishes national strategy for supporting children in difficulty

The Government published the national strategy of community actions designed to support the children in difficulty for 2007-2009 in the last number of The Official Gazette of Moldova. The general objective of the strategy is to develop and promote a national system of joint actions that will enable to socially include 20% of the children in difficulty. In particular, through this strategy the Government aims to work out and improve the normative framework for promoting community actions; to form and develop the capacities of the specialists and voluntaries working in the area; to develop community-based services within education, rehabilitation, social protection and healthcare institutions for children; to ensure children’s and young people’s access to communitarian action plans; to raise public awareness and mobilize the society; to monitor and assess the community actions. The activities will centre on three important areas for the categories of children involved – education, social protection and healthcare. The strategy extends to the following categories of children: at risk; from underprivileged families; institutionalized; that come of age in residential institutions; abandoned in medical institutions; beneficiaries of family-type and community-based services; in conflict with the law, and from secondary education establishments. The strategy will serve as basis for the specially set up Children’s High Level Group to coordinate the community actions. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Local Public Administration will monitor and coordinate the implementation of the strategy. The activities that will be carried out to implement the national strategy of community actions designed to support the children in difficulty will be financed from the state and local budgets and from the financial assistance provided by communities and donors.