Movie therapy

“Speranta” Center in cooperation with Norwegian star Torstein Sodal, along with Moldova’s Ministry of Labor Social Protection and Family launched the project “Cinema Mobila”. The projects objective is the development of social initiative among children and youth with disabilities, and its promotion in a non-formal framework, through watching documentaries about people with disabilities, reports Info-Prim Neo. Tatiana Cernomorit, program coordinator at “Speranta”, stated at a press conference on Wednesday, July 4, that the project has two strategic objectives. These are the development of self-esteem and optimist attitude in people with disabilities, along with changing the society’s attitude towards such people. “We believe that films are one of the means to change people’s attitude, we can launch positive social messages that will reach everyone. We plan to show movies weekly for two categories of people. There will be educational movies, motivational ones, which we will screen in boarding schools and residential institutions. Additionally, we rely on the masses to by screening success stories of people with disabilities, in order to show that all people have some ability. What is important is to discover it”, stated Tatiana Cernomorit. Minister of Labor Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga said that this project is an example that Moldovans should follow, such that to change disabled people’s lives through good deeds. 14,000 of the 169,000 disabled people in Moldova are children. “Recently, the Law on social inclusion of disabled people was voted in the second reading, and is up for the approval of President Nicolae Timofti. It is a framework Law that stipulates respecting and enforcing the rights, as well as the change in attitude and mentality towards these people. Incidentally, the project that launches today is falls precisely under the provision of Article 11 of this Law, which stipulates making the society more empathetic”, mentioned Valentina Buliga. Norwegian tenor Torstein Sodal said that during his first visit to Moldova, in 2003, he had visited several boarding-type institutions, and what he saw there had made him much more empathetic. “I’ve been to Moldova many times since 2003 and, beyond all expenses and flaws, the children mattered the most. We thought of giving these children the opportunity to watch documentaries and animated movies once a week. We want to offer them a positive experience”, said the tenor. Throughout the “Cinema Mobila” project, on a weekly basis, movie screenings will take place in orphanages, residential type institutions and general education institutions, in order to offer children with disabilities the opportunity to relax and the chance to change their attitudes on disability.