Moldova

One child under the age of 7 is placed in an institution in Moldova every day. The nation, the poorest in Europe, has over 7,000 children in its poorly-run state institutions.

This is largely due to poverty. Many parents live below the poverty line and face a daily struggle to feed, clothe and educate their children. Sadly, when they can no longer cope, they are forced to turn to institutions. Others place their children in institutions while they travel overseas to try to find work. 

A recent report by UNICEF and the Government of Moldova states that just 2% of children in institutions are orphans. The remaining 98% have families but poverty and a lack of support is keeping them apart.

We started working in Moldova in 2001, supporting children and carers in 29 established Family Type Homes that the government had set up as alternatives to state institutions but where the children and their foster parents are still forgotten and neglected. Our swift intervention, and the establishment of another 14 new Family Type Homes and 56 foster families earned us a reputation for success and showed decision-makers in Moldova the value of fostering. We then developed successful services to keep children out of institutions, supporting vulnerable families and preventing family breakdown. This helped us become a key partner of the Ministry of Education and UNICEF in Moldova to lead on reforming institutions for school-age children.

We closed our first institution in Moldova in 2009, the Cupcui Institution. We created services to ensure that the children and their families received excellent care and support, as well as services to help families at risk of breakdown. Following this success, we helped reunite 37 children in Cernoleuca Institution and 47 in Cupcini Institution with their parents, or helped place them with foster families. We then closed both institutions for good.

While school age children in Moldova receive some support and there is a clear national strategy to end institutionalisation, children under the age of three remain extremely vulnerable, and are at greatest risk of being institutionalised. They receive little or no support in their communities and when their parents suffer a crisis, they usually land up in institutions. To address this gap, we are working to close two baby institutions in Chisinau and Tiraspol.

We are also developing services to help parents and children who are at risk of being separated from one another, and alternative care solutions for young children who cannot live with their parents. In addition, we  work with national and local government authorities, childcare professionals and community members to ensure children with learning disabilities receive mainstream education and are well supported by their communities.

In Moldova we are working in partnership with CCF Moldova and HFC Transnistria.