Moldova has highest rate of children living without parents - Demographic and Health Report

One third of Moldovan children below 15 live with only one parent, including 7 % - without both parents, although they are alive. These data is provided by Moldova Demographic and Health Report 2005, presented on Tuesday, December 19, which places Moldova first in a top of countries of the region, concerning the rate of children living without parents. According to the study, the situation dramatically worsened compared to 2000. Thus 42% of the emigrants left their children home under the supervision of a single parent or another person. As part of a conference dedicated to the report, Boris Galca, programme coordinator of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Moldova appreciated as an alarming tendency the fact that more and more families in Moldova give birth to only one child, those with 2 children representing already an exception. “Moldova registers a constantly negative population growth rate during the last 15 years and this thing is rather significant because it affects the natural balance of population, meaning an equal number between the newborns and people who die”, Galca mentioned. According to him, this thing requests firm interventions of the Government via working out demographic policies and strategies for supporting young families and encouraging fertility. Galca mentioned that a major problem for Moldova is that of HIV/AIDS, growth of the number of abortions and infertility cases, spreading of sexually transmitted diseases, and lack of information on family planning. The improvements have only been attested in healthcare of mother and child. The report shows that the infant mortality rate represents an improvement in the last 10 years being relatively low in comparison to many other countries from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Overall, 84 percent of children 15-26 months are fully vaccinated, and 75% of these children have been vaccinated in conformity with the schedule recommended by the National Immunisation Programme of the Republic of Moldova. Results show that 80 percent of Moldovan households consume adequately iodised salt marking a progress compared to 2000, when this index was of only 33%. The survey has been carried out by The Ministry of Health, the National Scientific Centre for Preventive Medicine. ORC Macro provided financial and technical assistance for the survey through the USAID, UNICEF and UNFPA. Data collection was conducted on a nationally representative sample of over 11,000 households across Moldova, except for Transnistria The first survey on reproductive health in Moldova has been conducted in 1997. The current edition emphasized upon the access to healthcare services but also on the demographic element. The authors of the survey say that its results will allow persons involved in implementing programmes and researchers to estimate and improve the existing programmes and develop new strategies in public health; identify groups of risk and direct the future interventions of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education towards vulnerable groups with high risk reproductive behaviour.