A new service enabling the single parents who are in difficulty to leave their small children in the care of specialists during the day, between 7am and 7pm, so that they can go to work was opened within the Temporary Placement and Rehabilitation Center for Children.

The service was launched with the support of the Public Association “CCF Moldova – Child, Community, Family”, which is the representative of the British foundation “Hope and Homes for Children”.

CCF Moldova head Liliana Rotaru has told IPN that this service is designed for single parents who are in a difficult financial situation and who have small children aged between four months and at most three years. The capacity of the service is 12 places.

“There are many mothers, especially in urban regions, who raise the children alone and have to go to work in order to earn their living. Thus, they do not have in whose care to leave the children aged 5-6 months. The major goal of the service is to prevent the separation of the child from the family,” said Liliana Rotaru, noting that there are not enough places at crèches in towns too.

Every application will be examined thoroughly so that the specialists convince themselves that the parents do not have who to leave the children with. The situation will be reassessed every six months. Employees of the Social Assistance and Family Doctors Division will contribute to identifying single parents in need of this service. When the child is enrolled in the service, the parent must find a job during two months and must keep the workplace.

Lilia Oleinic, senior consultant at the Ministry of Health, which manages the center, said that this type of service is new for Moldova. A similar service exists only in Chisinau and it showed that such services are necessary. Besides care and development services, the children will also benefit from medical rehabilitation. Usually, these children suffer from diseases typical of their age, such as rachitism, anemia and malnutrition, and the specialists will provide the necessary assistance to them.

The service was created with the financial support of the Embassy of Finland in Bucharest and of “Hope and Homes for Children”. The over €8,000 needed for renovation and equipment was provided by the Embassy. The costs for maintaining the service are covered by the Temporary Placement and Rehabilitation Center for Children.