New ludothèque inaugurated in Chisinau

A new ludothèque was opened at the Chisinau Day Center for Children and Youth “Andries”. The games library was created as part of the project “Support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children” implemented by the Center for Policies and Analyses Abroad. The project is carried out in cooperation with the Municipal Division for Children’s Rights Protection with resources from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Info-Prim Neo reports. At the inauguration of the ludothèque, Ecaterina Damian, program coordinator at the Center for Policies and Analyses Abroad, said that the project is designed to develop and integrate the orphans and vulnerable children and to promote tolerance towards them. “The ludothèque is a games library, an open, accessible room provided with all kinds of things that mean games and a place where the child becomes the main protagonist of all the activities. By 300 children would come to the ludothèque yearly – by about 15-20 children a day,” said Eudochia Filip, representative of the Day Center for Children and Youth “Andries”. According to authors of the project, the ludothèque will favor the development of the personality of orphans and vulnerable children by animation and recreational activities. Twelve ludothèques work in Moldova at present: 3 in Balti, 2 in Chisinau and the rest in other parts of the country. According to a study carried out by UNICEF in cooperation with the Government of Moldova, most of the residential institutions for children aged 0–7 lack rooms for games (73.7%) and visiting rooms (91.8%), which provide privacy when the parents come to see their children.