The number of infant abandonment cases has fallen considerably over the last sixteen years. While in 2001 there 217 cases in Chișinău, there were only two children abandoned in 2017. In a reply to IPN, the Municipal Directorate for the Protection of Children’s Rights (DMPDC) says that this is the result of child abandonment prevention programs.
To that end, the “Mellow Parenting” program has been implement by the “Partnerships for every child” CSO, in cooperation with the Directorate. The goal of the Program is to improve security, wellbeing, and development of vulnerable children up to five years of age, especially for those with increased risk of abandonment and separation, due to lack of adequate parental care and weak parent-child relationships.
As for the number of child and infant abandonment cases, it has fallen considerably, from 106 children in 2005, to 44 in 2011, 15 in 2015, in 2016 - 4 children(two of whom have been reintegrated into their biological families), and 2 children in 2017.
The number of children released by boarding institutions has grown considerably. In 2012, state/private placement centers housed 460 children, relative to 172 children at the end of this year’s first quarter. Boarding schools were housing 1218 children in 2005, in 2017 - only 96 children.
Various activities are set in place to prevent checking children into institutions, as well as to reintegrate previously committed children. Among them is family support through financial help, which current has 46 beneficiary families, who have together received a total of 176 thousand lei. The Municipal Fund for Socially Vulnerable Family Support, had 301 beneficiary families this year, i.e. a total 551 children. With the help of sponsors, 2664 vulnerable families with a total of 3129 children have benefited from humanitarian aid and 13 families have received financial aid.
At the initiative of DMPDC’s, 2017 is the seventh consecutive year in which the Chișinău Municipal Council (CMC) allots financial resources for the purchase of public transportation passes for children without parental care, those from housing institutions and from vulnerable families. In 2016, a total of 5727 passes have been given to children from the above-mentioned groups, the yearly sum allotted by the CMC rising to 400 890 lei.
