It’s time positive news stories about children replace accident and burial reports

[Info-Prim Neo article from the series “2011: how it was and how it wasn’t”] {Children’s rights: year full of accomplishments and failures, in the opinion of Igor Guzun, communication specialist} Moldova in 2011 saw both accomplishments and failures as regards the observance of children’s rights. There were achieved a number of results, while the failures are older, director of the communication agency ”URMA ta” Igor Guzun has told Info-Prim Neo. “I would like to see more children and teens in the mass media with their concerns and successes, not only as victims in terrible reports on accidents and burials. I have the feeling, and some of my colleagues working in different areas share it, that it is now time for positive news stories, especially about children and adolescents,” said Igor Guzun. Among the accomplishments of the year, he mentioned the fact that the subject of children’s rights had been the focus in the activities of a series of NGOs and international organizations on a regular and less regular basis. “Several initiatives – to eliminate child labor, ensure safe Internet for children, prevent violence against children, combat child sexual exploitation and to support the children home alone – are among the main topics that come to mind when I look at 2011 retrospectively. An accomplishment is also the fact that more people associated themselves with the need to promote children’s rights – from the media to agriculture and from professionals in different areas to children and young people,” said the communication specialist. He also said that this year he has been marked by the study “Specific needs of children and elderly people left without care of family members who work abroad”. “It centers on the dramatic life situations, feelings, resentments and experiences of the children and elderly people affected by migration. The research involved a number of people, institutions and agencies and I’m honored to have taken part in this joint effort as editor of the text. I recommend this study for reading, which sometimes can be difficult, for the people who recognize that every child needs all the rights to be respected. The confessions included in this study affected me most of all,” said Igor Guzun. The most important values mentioned by the children refer to the family, health, money, studies and work. In general, going to the parents or the parents returning home is not essential for the children. The most important thing for them is for the family to reunite, said the director of the communication agency “URMA ta”. According to the latest data of the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, almost 135,000 children remained without the parents’ supervision. [Mariana Galben, Info-Prim Neo]