The vulnerable children are now stronger

Moinești, Romania. Mattias, a 5 year old child with big black eyes, picks the card sporting the number 4 out of a deck of cards numbered from 0 to 9. “Well done, Mattias, now please give me the card that has your age on it” ask smiling the professional, using a tone of voice that sounds clear and determined, even beyond the door of the psychologist office inside Moinești Integrated Community Centre, where all the therapy sessions are being held.

In these Centres, free of charge and long term integrated support is offered to the vulnerable children. Both them and their parents have access to basic services offered by the community team - the social worker, the community nurse and the school counsellor and also specialised services, put all together taking into account the individual needs of each child. These specialised services are offered by the medical doctor, the psychologist, the speech therapist and the physiotherapist.

On the other side of the door of the room where Mattias is having his therapy session, on one of the chairs lined along the hallway, waits a woman sporting a short haircut. Her posture suggests honesty and dedication - she is not in the therapy room but in the same time almost “glued” to her son. Larisa, 41 years old, Mattias’s mother, smiles every time she hears the psychologist saying “well done”, giving every appreciation the value of a breath of air or of a lifeline.

“Mattias said his first word when he was two years and ten months old. He was stopping abruptly, sometimes even before finishing the word. I was calling for him and he was not answering, as if he was not hearing me, he was just looking away” remembers Larisa and her voice and gaze show that it is still complicated to talk about the moment when she decided to act on this situation.

“When he was 4, we went to the doctor for the first time and the professional realised almost instantly what the problem was”. Mattias was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder less than one year ago. Back in the room, the little boy arranges the cards in ascending order, with a joy experienced by every child when he or she is allowed to play.

Together with the psychologist he starts a new game, with cards showing children either playing with a dog, watering a flower or building a snowman. Mattias easily identifies each action, as the psychologists asks him to do.

Bogdan Petru Cehan, Executive Manager of the Integrated Community Centre underlines the importance of offering integrated services for the community - “Contrary to villages and municipalities, where some of the services we offer are not provided, here, in the city, the most important advantage the Centre presents is the fact that we provide a complete spectrum of services and that we don’t do it sometime in the future, in two or three months, but now, when the beneficiaries really need it. On top of that, our services are provided free of charge. Moinești Integrated Community Centre is not only servicing our city but also seven neighbouring villages and municipalities. When the people who need our support are not able to travel to our Centre, we also offer transportation services.”

“We started coming to the Centre in August 2022. Back then, Mattias could not draw, colour, he was getting scared of cars and of any kind of noise, he was getting angry very easily when something was perceived as a stress. We decided to move homes from our city to Moinești because we knew about the Centre and because here Mattias could benefit from the help of a speech therapist, a psychologist or a physiotherapist.

Starting June 2021, the moment of its opening, Moinești Centre registered 781 beneficiaries. Mattias turns towards his mother - she enters the therapy room and the little boy starts showing her the cards, one at a time - “I am very grateful to the people working in this Centre, to the professionals, for all the progress that Mattias has made. Now he calls me “mother”, he speaks in complete sentences, he is not afraid of loud noises anymore, he is not getting angry that easily and he is more empathetic” adds Larisa and her joy seems fully justified by the ease with which Mattias is communicating both with her and with the psychologist.

The professionals of the Integrated Community Centers are identifying and evaluating the vulnerable children, in order to offer them a personalized service plan through which both them and their parents can improve their quality of life.

The Community Integrated Centers are part of the initiative “Romania For Every Child - Making social inclusion real - breaking the cycle of exclusion for the most vulnerable children in Romania”, initiative which benefits from a grant of 4.2 million euros provided by Norway through Norway Grants, under the Local Development Program administered by the Romanian Social Development Fund. Five centers as the one mentioned above are offering support in Bacău, Brașov, Moinești, Colonești and Corbasca. Until now, approximately 6200 children and carers benefited from the services offered by the Integrated Community Centers.