Street assistance service for children established in Chisinau

Chisinau, 08 August /MOLDPRES/ – The City Hall of Chisinau established the Street Assistance Service (SAS). The new service aims at strengthening the protection system for children in risk.

According to the Chisinau city hall’s information and media communication service, the initiative targets children which practice a street lifestyle, roam the streets, begging, consuming toxic/narcotic substances or practicing prostitution.

Under new structure, there will activate psycho – pedagogues, psychologists, social workers, volunteers, etc. The service will be financed from Chisinau municipal budget sources as well as donations, grants and sponsorships.

The SAS will organise info, awareness – raising, socio – educational activities, including in community centres for children, as well as social assistance activities. Similarly, it is proposed to identify children in risk situation in the street, complex assessment of cases submitted to SAS, documentation of beneficiaries and establishment of their status, placement of beneficiaries, their schooling and communication of identified cases to guardianship authorities.

The operational objectives of service are to identify and reduce the number of children in the street and their reintegration, but also to identify risk areas, that is to say, areas of street children. The SAS beneficiaries include children which are subject to violence, neglected children, children deprived of parental care and supervision, children whose parents are deceased, minors living in the streets, children which ran away or been banished from home.

The SAS will work with internal affairs bodies and, in particular, with the Children's Safety Offices within the Chisinau District Police Inspectorates in order to identify children and resolve the cases. Also, the new structure will establish a partnership with medical institutions to carry out the primary investigations of beneficiaries, consult family and profile physicians. The new service will run from 08:00 – 24:00.

According to the City Hall's data, in 2017, there were organised 132 raids for children in risk situations in the street, which identified 94 children and 95 per cent of them were repeatedly placed, in placement centres.

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor L. Alcaza)