Social inclusion project for mentally-disabled children

A project worth about 2,4 million USD was launched in Chisinau on February 1. This project will contribute to the promotion of the activities for social inclusion of children with mental health problems and will offer support their parents.  The program is funded by Soros Foundation within the project “Inclusive Community-Moldova – financial support in the period of global economic crisis”. It will be implemented in the course of the next three years.
During the official start of the project the Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family, Valentina Buliga, said that 136 children and teenagers from the Internat for children with mental deficiencies from Orhei will be integrated in their biological families.

90 families will benefit of material support to arrange personal space for children who are in the process of reintegration into family. There will be opened new sheltered houses and new mobile services in different localities, mentioned Valentina Buliga.

Program Director, Ludmila Malcoci, pointed out that there also will be opened 3 community-based houses. “Creation of the nine new mobile teams together with those which had already been launched, will contribute essentially to the prevention of institutionalization of all categories of disabled children, said Malcoci.

800 children who risk to be placed in the internats, as well as 1500 parents will benefit of the services offered within the project. There will be created over 270 new work places for unemployed, people with low income and retired people.

According to the official data, in Moldova there are about 16 thousand disabled children, however their number is increasing.

The project will be implemented by the Association „Keystone Moldova” in the partnership with the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family. // SOMATO-info, 01.02.2011