Moldovan Metropolitan Church will back residential childcare system reform

The Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and all Moldova will support the reform of the residential childcare system, the Church’s secretary, archpriest Vadim Cheibas told a news conference on December 21. The Metropolitan Church will urge the priests and spiritual leaders of the community to preach from the pulpit about the family as the best environment for the development of the child, the archpriest said. The clergy will call on the parishioners to take attitude towards the children that remained alone, to help them find a new family and to prevent their institutionalisation. The priests will visit the vulnerable families that have children in residential institutions or could take them there and will help them solve the problems so that the children return home or remain at home. Vadim Cheiabas stressed that the Church has a very important instrument – the Word – which is more powerful than money sometimes. The secretary said that the Association of Christian Orthodox Students and the Social Centre “Agapis” will work out a well-structured programme of activities and will make sure that it is implemented. The Church gives the family of priest Pavel Braileanu from Sanatauca village, Floresti district, as example to the clergy and parishioners. The priest opened a family-type children’s home in September. Besides his biological children, the Braileanu family looks after three orphan children aged 8, 6 and 3. The priest decided to accept two girls and their brother into the family, guided by the Bible. The UNICEF representative in Moldova Ray Virgilio Torres said that the Church’s effort to support the Moldovan families is very important. One of the reasons why the children should grow up in the family, which is mentioned not very often, is that the family transmits the culture and spiritual values. The religion and culture are fundamental rights of the children, the UNICEF representative said. Ray V. Torres said that the reform implemented in 2007 prevented the institutionalisation of 721 children. As that the state spends 17,000 lei for maintaining a child in a residential institution yearly, there was saved 12 million lei. The reform of the residential childcare system initiated by the Government of Moldova has been implemented during the first year with the support of UNICEF and of the European Union. The reform’s aim is to reduce the number of children that grow and develop apart from the family by 50% until 2012 by reintegrating them into the natural or extended family and by preventing their institutionalisation. Also, the Government aims to restructure all the residential childcare institutions under a general reorganisation plan. The Government plans to reduce the number of institutionalised children from 11,500 to 10,500 in 2008.