“We want not uniforms, but toilet paper and soap!” With such a slogan, a column of parents, young people and children marched along Stefan cel Mare si Sfant Blvd as part of a demonstration staged by the public association “Solitary Parents” together with the School Students Union of Moldova and the public association “My City”.
The column set off from the UNIC shopping center and marched to the Chisinau City Hall and then to the Ministry of Education, demanding that the education institutions should be supplied with water, toilet paper, soap and dividers with doors at toilets, IPN reports.
“Solitary Parents” founder Ala Revenco said the parents want to make themselves heard as hygiene is not a whim, but a necessity. The parents do not ask tablet PCs, interactive boards and modern furniture for children, but bare essentials that everyone has at home and that should be present at schools and kindergartens. During many years, the parents kept silence, but the experience of the past two years showed the authorities react to problems if these are signaled.
Adrian Plesca, of the association “My City”, said the sanitary conditions in schools and kindergartens are disastrous and can no longer be tolerated as the children’s health is endangered. She called on the municipal and central authorities to adopt a decision by which to order to ensure better hygiene conditions.
The marchers chanted: “Concrete measures, decent toilets!”, “Healthy children, secured future!”, “We want clean hands to smell of books!”, “Why are toilets outside still accepted?”
The participants in the march demanded to ensure a sufficient number of toilets – one toilet for 25 girls, one toilet and a urinal for 50 boys and by a toilet for the female and male staffs – and that the toilets be accessible for everyone, including for employees and children with disabilities. They also demanded that the toilets should ensure privacy and safety and those for boys and girls should be completely separated and that the sanitary facilities be outfitted with handwashing liquids and paper. All the demands were included in a note that was submitted to the Chisinau City Hall and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research.
