Real lives

The child comes into this world in the family, and also in the family they receive love, care, and education necessary for a good development.

Unfortunately, today thousands of Moldovan children lack family warmth. They live in boarding schools, children’s homes, or even in the street. But they could live in a family.

The Metropolitan Church of Moldova, one of the most influential religious structure that has about 98% of churches in the country in subordination, has announced at a press conference that it supports the residential institution reform launched by the Government of the Republic of Moldova and aimed at reducing the number of children placed in boarding schools and children’s homes by half. For this purpose, His Grace Metropolitan Vladimir has issued a Circular addressed to subordinate congregations, by which he encourages priests from the entire country to contribute to reform implementation.

Clergymen shall preach sermons in sacred places promoting family as the best environment for child development. Also, priests shall visit vulnerable families who have sent or could send their children to boarding schools, shall find out about their needs, and shall try to solve their family problem so that the child finally came back to or stayed in the family.

“The Church has a very important tool – the word. We shall encourage priests to deliver clear religious messages to their communities for the benefit of children deprived of family warmth”, mentioned Fr. Vadim Cheibas, Secretary of Moldovan Metropolitan Church, at a press conference.

© UNICEF/MOL/sanatuca198/Putuntica

The Braileanu family with all their children in December 2007.

The Metropolitan Church of Moldova, with the support of UNICEF, has developed a Guide for Clergymen “Family is a Home Church. Let Us Find a Place in It for Every Child”, which shall be distributed throughout the whole country and will serve as an important reference point for priests in their actions to support families and children.

“In the conditions of mass migration abroad, Moldovan families go through significant change. For many family members it is hard to be together. Thus, the efforts of the Church in this sense are important. To do our best in order for a child to benefit from the warmth of a family or a family-type institution is, in fact, that essential bond that unites us”, has declared the UNICEF Moldova Representative, Mr. Ray Virgilio Torres.

The Church also intends to contribute to development of alternatives to boarding schools and children’s homes: tutelage, family-type children’s homes, foster care, etc. These services are the best solution for children who cannot grow up in their own family, either because they are orphans, or because their parents have left for abroad, disappeared or display violent behavior. These services provide children with a family environment that is so important for their development.

Church representatives shall encourage their parishioners to take a stand on children left alone, to help them find a new family, and, thus, to prevent placement of these children in boarding schools or other residential institutions.

The Church comes with the first examples worth following by the Christian Community. Sunday schools are one of the means of creating Community Centers for children and young people beside village or town churches. There are quite a few priests who create associations and fraternities aimed at helping families in need, their children, as well as other disadvantaged categories of population. Some priests also create family-type children’s homes, and some take abandoned children to their places and even adopt them. For example, priest Pavel Braileanu from Sanatauca village, Floresti raion, founded a family-type children’s home in September of the current year. Despite the fact that he has five children himself, his family has found a place for three abandoned children both in their house and heart. Nicolae, Adriana, and Valeria are 8, 6, and 3 years old, respectively. Their farther died in a traffic accident, while their mother started drinking and, finally, abandoned her own children. The three siblings found themselves living in a cellar without light, heat, and water. Thanks to Fr. Braileanu’s family, these children have found warmth of a new family and now grow up at home, together with their new brothers and sisters and new parents.

“When I heard about those children for the first time, they were miserable – very scared, full of complexes, girls could hardly speak. I did what any true Christian would have done – I discussed with my wife, our children, and in several months the three children came to stay with us. This is what God teaches us – to feed the hungry, to cure the sick. Now the youngest girl has started talking, and the eldest brings good marks from school”, tells Fr. Pavel Braileanu.

According to the last surveys made public in December, the Church of the Republic of Moldova is the most credible source for Moldovan population. Moldovans trust the Church more, which is followed by mass media and local public authorities.

At present, about 11,500 children grow up and study at 67 boarding schools and children’s homes of the Republic of Moldova. Approximately 10,000 of them have one or both parents alive. No matter how good conditions at a residential institution are, or how professional the staff may be, children suffer because they are far away from their parents, because they feel alone, because they have nothing of their own, and because they do not know what the next day will bring. The Child Care System Reform financially supported by UNICEF Moldova and the European Union has just started and has a long way to go aiming to find the best solution for every child. Thus, the Moldovan Government plans to reduce the number of institutionalized children by half within the following 5 years and to develop a wide range of alternative services in order to provide children with a better life and a possibility to develop fully. Within one year of the reform implemented with the support of UNICEF and the EU, the situation has changed significantly: within only one year the number of children in seven boarding schools of the pilot regions has reduced by more than one fourth. At the same time, 22 families throughout the country have opened family-type children’s homes within 2007.