Only 17 mayor’s offices have by a specialist in the protection of children’s rights. In the rest of mayor’s offices, these duties are fulfilled by the social assistant. If the post of social assistant is vacant, the responsibilities are fulfilled by the mayor. The situation was depicted by MP of the Shor Party Reghina Apostolova, who presented a legislative proposal for better ensuring the protection of children in situations of risk, IPN reports.
The MP noted that the law on the special protection of children in situations of risk and children separated from their parents was adopted in 2013, but this is not perfect. The law provides that each mayor’s office should have by a specialist in children’s rights protection. According to statistics for 2017, such specialists existed only at 19 mayor’s offices. In 850 mayor’s offices, the area of children’s rights was dealt with by the social assistant. In eight mayor’s offices, there was no specialist in the protection of children’s right or social assistant. The situation hasn’t changed much and only 17 mayor’s offices have now by such a specialist.
According to Reghina Apostolova, these specialists are extremely necessary as statistics show that each sixth child is educated by relatives because the parents work abroad. And this is only a category that needs professional assistance, but there are also children who remained without parental care, neglected children, etc. Data also show that 11,000 children at the end of 2019 were supervised as being in situations of risk. This is a huge figure for such a small country as Moldova.
The MP noted that more than 30,000 children all over Moldova need protection and professional assistance, but the social assistant does not have the necessary training. The group of the Shor Party suggests that the specialists in the protection of children’s rights should benefit from training seminars paid for by the state. This way the children will enjoy appropriate professional assistance.
