Mayors must be sanctioned for not taking measures to ensure childrenʾs right to live in family environment, ombudsperson

The ombudswoman for childrenʾs rights Tamara Plamadeala said that the local public authorities do not take steps to identify the families that would want and have the possibility of looking after an orphan. She also said that most often the children are placed in boarding schools and their right to be brought up in a family environment is thus violated, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We must work with the local public authorities so that they realize this serious violation. I suggest sanctioning the mayors who do nothing to ensure the childrenʾs right to live in a family environment,” Tamara Plamadeala told a press club on September 1. According to the ombudswoman, the costs of maintaining a child in a residential institution vary from 2,000 to 6,000 lei a month. The allowances paid to parents looking after orphans are much lower. Tamara Plamadeala also said that during ten months while acting as ombudswoman for childrenʾs rights she ascertained that the most serious violations are: the children are raised in an unfavorable environment, the textbooks are leased out and the rent is high, funds are being collected in schools, etc. “I went to Falesti, where I spoke to a parent, who complained that at the end of the previous school year her child was sent home from the school to bring money for the school fund as he was the only one that did not bring money. They were poor and the mother could not give him the money. She complained to the authorities, but nobody listened to her. She was told that that was the law,” Plamadeala said. She also said that she visited over 50 residential childcare institutions and saw helpless children there. There are not programs to make them more open, to teach them to be more confident and to speak about their problems. The press club themed “Childʾs Ombudsperson – Protector of Children in Front of Authorities” was organized by the Investigative Journalism Center.