Non-state temporary placement centers do not respect minimum quality standards, municipal children rights watchdog

The non-state temporary placement centers located in the municipality of Chisinau do not observe the minimum quality standards in looking after, educating and socializing the children they accommodate, shows an analysis of the activity of ten institutions of the kind, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the vice president of the Municipal Council for Children’ Rights Protection and head of the Municipal Division for Children’s Rights Protection Svetlana Chifa, the analysis revealed that all the centers created good living conditions for the children, but there were identified certain deviations. Most of the centers do not have individual child placement plans and contracts with the families. The centers do not always coordinate the admissions with the Municipal Division for Children’ Rights Protection, as required by law. Not all the centers have a pluridisciplinary team (social worker, psychologist, educator) to insure the extensive assessment of the children’s situation. In many cases, the maximum placement term of 12 months is exceeded. “Regretfully, the legislation does not provide for punishments for the institutions that do not meet the standards and there is no cooperation mechanism between the local public authorities and the managers of placement centers,” Svetlana Chifa said. Iurie Cojocaru, the head of the Child and Adolescent Hygiene Division of the Preventive Medicine Center, said that some of the non-state centers do not coordinate the construction or reconstruction of the buildings or work without a sanitary license. When organizing the alimentation of children, not all the centers coordinate the menu with the State Sanitary-Epidemiological Service and calculate the calories that the children must receive during the day, according to the age. “Unfortunately, there are centers that work for eight hours a day without organizing the alimentation of children or centers where the children eat only the first or the second course of the lunch, as the administration decides, and this influences the physical and psychological development of the children,” Iurie Cjocaru said. The menu of some centers does not include the minimum norm of dairy products, fruit and vegetables that the children should eat. The documents on the alimentation service leave much to be desired in all the centers. If infectious diseases appear, the lack of documentation makes the investigation practically impossible, the division head warns. He also says that the humanitarian aid that the placement centers receive from abroad – clothes, toys, etc. – is not accompanied by sanitary and security certificates. Ecaterina Mardarovici, the president of “Agapedia” Association, says that the center she heads accommodates children younger than three and the lunch is served according to the needs and tastes of these children. Being a private institution, the center cannot afford to spend money on products that are not eaten. In fact, the financing is the only thing that makes a state center different from a non-state one, says Ecaterina Mardarovici. She describes the attitude of the officials that consider the placement of children in private centers more dangerous than in state ones as ‘abnormal’. As a result of the identified deviations, the Municipal Council for Children’ Rights Protection gave the temporary accommodation centers three months to adjust the activity regulations to the legislation and to provide the Municipal Division for Children’ Rights Protection with information about the children placed and with statistical progress reports. The Council recommended the centers to enter into partnership agreements with the Municipal Division for Children’ Rights Protection. The minimum quality standards regarding the looking after, education and socialization of the children placed in these centers were approved by the Government on April 20, 2007. The temporary placement centers accommodate the children until the situation in their family improves or an optimal definitive form for protecting them is found. Five state and ten non-state temporary accommodation centers work in the municipality of Chisinau at present. They have an accommodation capacity of about 265 places.