Number of children abandoned at birth decreasing

The number of children abandoned shortly after birth is decreasing, Chisinau social assistants say. This makes childless couples wait in line in order to adopt a newborn, as the number of potential adopters exceeds by far the number of children abandoned at birth, said Svetlana Chifa, head of the municipal Children's Rights Division, at a meeting with social assistants working in Chisinau's suburbs. Chifa explains this phenomenon by saying that the social assistance service in Moldova “has started to yield results”. “For years we have rang alarm bells because the phenomenon was widespread, and so we managed to build a strong relationship between the social assistants and the medical institutions”, said Chifa. However, Moldova hasn't yet shaped a clear definition of what social services should mean, and the social sector is the only system which lacks a clear mechanism of monitoring the quality of these services, admitted Viorica Dumbraveanu, department head at the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child. This sector also suffers from an acute staff shortage because of the low salaries. According to Galina Madan, social assistant in the suburban town of Truseni, whereas the community has a population of 10,000, she is the only social assistant. “You have to be very committed to your job and do everything with passion, because otherwise the salary will surely make you quit”, Galina Madan said. She added that her daily concern are the children whose parents are migrant workers. “They have no one to interact with, that is why they develop a habit of going into bars and dance clubs, where you can find alcohol and drugs. This is how the youth degrade themselves morally”. At the same time, Galina Madan says that the classes she conducts in school produce good results, because the teenagers can acknowledge what risks they take when indulging in immoral practices. Last year, Chisinau municipality had 467 children deemed at high risk. In the first quarter of 2008, the risk group contained 198 children, but statistics show that their number usually increases in the second half of the year.