About 20 parental assistants who will take care of children aged between 0 and 3 and children with disabilities will be recruited within a nationwide campaign. Besides the objective of encouraging the recruitment of new parental assistants, the campaign aims to sensitize the people to the role of professional parental assistants in ensuring a family environment for children who remained without parental care, IPN reports.
The campaign “You were born in my soul” is launched by CCF Moldova – Child, Community, Family, which represents Hope and Homes for Children of the UK, and the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Moldova.
CCF Moldova president Liliana Rotaru said the campaign will be intensely conducted in October, when video and audio clips will be disseminated through the media and the Internet. In November and December, activities will be staged in the four pilot–units – Balti municipality and the districts of Drochia, Donduseni and Glodeni, where the number of children in specialized institutions is still high. “There will be held district conferences and training seminars for social workers. Posters to recruit new parental assistances will be placed in public areas and transport. These will contain contact data that can be used by potential parental assistants. Consequently, there will be chosen about 20 professional parental assistants.
Minister of Labor Stela Grigoras said that even if the number of children in residential institutions decreased considerably, from 12,000 to 2,000 during the last ten years, which is huge progress, there are yet institutionalized children, in children’s homes and boarding schools, who wait to be taken into a family. “For most of them, time is decisive and I refer here first of all to children of an early age, with disabilities, for whom early intervention, the family environment and parental care are vital for their future,” she stated.
Head of the UNICEF Office in Moldova Nune Mangasaryan said the campaign is designed to encourage this type of child care - professional parental assistance. According to her, significant results were achieved during the last ten years. The number of children in residential institutions was reduced five-six times. Each child has the basic right to a family and the goal is to ensure this family environment for children.
According to the Ministry of Labor, in Moldova there are 445 families of professional parental assistants and parent educators who raise almost 1,000 children.
