Florești: Rehabilitation services for children and adults

For a family in need of rehabilitation services, travelling to a specialist can mean time, expenses and repeated trips. The opening of the ARGO Centre for Rehabilitation, Therapy and Health Education in Florești brings such services closer to local residents. Grant: €37,500, under a project funded by the EU and co-financed by Sweden.

The centre has been equipped with facilities for the physical and psychological rehabilitation of children and adults. Services include physiotherapy, nutritional therapy and psychotherapy for children aged three to eight, as well as massage for adults with rheumatological, neurological, orthopaedic or respiratory conditions. The initiative was supported through a social entrepreneurship development project.

The stories of the centre’s beneficiaries show how valuable such services can be for people.

At the age of six, Evelina could not speak. “At first, I didn’t want to accept that Evelina was a child with special needs. When I accepted it, I understood that I had to move forward,” says Elena, Evelina’s mother. She used to take her daughter to speech therapy in the nearest cities, Bălți and Soroca, but each trip took time and money and, most importantly, made it difficult to maintain continuity in the therapy. “When the ARGO Centre opened in Florești, I was very happy. It is right across from my office. Thanks to the work of its specialists, Evelina achieved something incredible! For the first time, at the age of six, she called me ‘mama’,” Elena recalls with emotion.

“I took part in training sessions on behavioural therapy, language development and courses for parents, organised with EU support. The methods I learned are different and much more effective. I gained new knowledge and confidence in managing difficult situations,” says Corina Scutelnic, a speech therapist at the centre.