For seventeen years, the Youth-Friendly Health Center “Neovita” in Chisinau has become a true friend for adolescents and young people thanks to the services and assistance it provides. Moreover, working as a resource center, Neovita has passed on its experience to the Youth Klinic Moldova network, which comprises 41 such centers operating in each district seat and in every municipality.
Holding an Open Doors Day event to celebrate its 17th anniversary, Neovita showcased its SDC-funded “Healthy Generation” national project: whereas in 2010, less than 5% of adolescents and young people aged 10-24 nationwide had access to specialized services, this number has increased to 27% at present.
According to Neovita director Galina Leșco, at national level, certain adolescent health indicators have started to improve, while such indicators like teen pregnancy, STDs and alcohol abuse among adolescents have been on the decrease. Cooperation with various shareholders, including the school and the family, has played a role.
As for the main issues experienced by the youth today, Galina Leșco singled out identity-seeking, when youths try to find a purpose in social and personal life. Then there are the complex issues of the teen-parent relationship, compounded by the fact that many Moldovan parents are working abroad. “Parents need to communicate with their children every day, children don’t need only their financial support, but emotional, too. Due to changes in their bodies, teens are also more prone to stress, which affects their health and overall well-being”, says Galina Leșco. Drug, alcohol and cigarette consumption are not uncommon among youths, as are unsafe sexual behaviors. Galina Leșco thinks introducing sex education in schools in necessary, or things will improve very slow.
In the future, the Center plans to extend its space to offer more services. Neovita will also work to advocate for legal measures that improve access of the youth to services of better quality. “We’d be happy to see changes in the financing structure of healthcare services so that we can attract more specialists to provide care for the youth. Existing salaries are just not attractive for the young specialists”.
An achievement that Neovita is particularly proud of is that it has managed to develop a vast network of volunteers who interact with other adolescents in need of peer to peer support. “With the help of our volunteers, our services have become more credible for the youth”, says Galina Leșco.
Roxana Brânza, a Neovita volunteer for almost a year, says her contribution is helping her to grow personally. When she first came to Neovita, she was rather shy, but she started making a lot of friends along the way and the fact that she can be helpful to her peers brings her a lot of satisfaction.
Leo Tataru started volunteering in Cimișlia 7 years ago. In his opinion, the biggest problems that youths face are the STDs and teen pregnancy. “As long as the subject of health education and sex education is taboo in society and within the family, children will avoid to speak about this and problems are imminent”, says Leo.
Elena Strelciuc, another volunteer, says it hurts her peers when people don’t understand them, when their rights are not respected, or when they are deprived of something that they consider important, when they are ignored by the adults, at home or in school. “Adults need to talk to their kids more often, ask them stuff, what they are thinking about, and share with them their joys and worries. Often they are too busy working to pay attention to their children”, says Elena.
The Youth-Friendly Health Center “Neovita” offers services for free to youths aged 10-24 years in problems related to reproductive health, unwanted pregnancy, STDs, pubertal development, psychological well-being, eating disorders, and consequences of violence and substance abuse. Neovita also does an ample prevention work with the help of its volunteers.
