Children with special needs in Ștefan Vodă have better rehabilitation conditions, thanks to the EU support

Over 100 children with special needs from Ștefan Vodă rayon have got better rehabilitation conditions at the centre for specialised assistance and temporary placement Trust, which was provided with equipment and a minibus adapted to transport people with disabilities. These improvements took place within the project “Accessible Social Services for Children and Young People with Special Needs from Stefan Voda district”, implemented by PRODOCS Public Association and Ștefan Vodă rayon Council with the support of the European Union and Soros Foundation Moldova.

Within a year, high-performance equipment was installed in the physical therapy and occupational therapy rooms, 84 parents and family members obtained individual and group support to develop their parenting and communication skills, and 35 specialists were trained in the field of working with children with special needs. Also, 128 children participated in socialisation and life skills development activities at the Trust Centre. The team of the Centre reviewed the internal documents of the institution and organised awareness-raising activities in the educational institutions of the district on the issues faced by children and young people with special needs.

“Thanks to financial and methodological support we managed to solve the problem of mobility of people with special needs from their home to the Centre, and this will contribute to increasing the number of beneficiaries of social services provided by the Centre and to developing relations with the community,” said Cristina Cuschevici, the project director and president of PRODOCS. 

The strengthening of the Trust Centre is one of the 40 social services created or developed within the project “Civil Society Organisations Act for Better Social Services”, financed by the European Union, co-financed and implemented by the Soros Foundation Moldova in partnership with the public associations Keystone Moldova and Institutum Virtutes Civilis.

“Supporting activities for the inclusion of children with special needs, so that they benefit from friendly conditions for rehabilitation and development, is one of our priorities and we will continue to implement projects in this area,” said Victoria Neaga, project manager at the European Union Delegation to Moldova.

The project “Accessible Social Services for Children and Young People with Special Needs from Ștefan Vodă District” was implemented during one year, with a budget of 60,000 EUR and a co-financing from Ștefan Vodă district Council of 34,000 lei.