Moldovan Christian Aid

Winter is a hard time in Moldova, because of the necessity to heat the buildings and therefore high fuel bills. The situation is even more difficult in rural areas where each year people have to spend much money on firewood and to keep the house warm and cosy requires not only money but a lot of physical effort as well. For the vulnerable lonely elderly people winter season is always the hardest since their pensions are quite low, the houses are old and often neglected and they are too weak to do all the work to keep the place warm.

In connection with that, in November – December, 2016 MCA initiated the distribution of warm winter blankets and electric heaters to the elderly beneficiaries of the program “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova”. One hundred elderly people from 5 villages received the aid that was distributed by the local partners with the help of the young volunteers. The blankets and heaters were also given to the adult volunteers who provide regular homecare visits to the beneficiaries, supervise young volunteers and therefore play an important role in the project too

The elderly were very touched and grateful and admitted that the help was quite up to the season and therefore highly welcomed and appreciated. They got one more way to get warmer in the house and compared it to the Christmas miracle. For the volunteers, who also live in the same villages and therefore experience the same situation in winter times, this was also a much-valued help and also a motivation for further active participation in the project.

On October 5-7^th, 2016 MCA program coordinator Alena Birsanu conducted monitoring visits to 4 locations of the program “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova” – namely, Alexandreni, Rotunda, Varatic villages and town Edinet. Village Coteala was excluded from the list due to the unexpected circumstances and will be visited by the program coordinator in future. The aim of the visits was to monitor the process of program implementation and to provide on-site consultations to the priests.

The program of the visit was rather intense and consisted of visiting the sites of future Elderly Day Centres, meeting with priests and young volunteers as well as visiting some of the beneficiaries. In an open and sincere environment the coordinator and the priests discussed the current issues of the program implementation – the actions planned for the rest of the year 2016, the difficulties the local CSOs encounter and the ways to overcome them.

Alena also met the young volunteers from all the 4 locations, solicited their feedback about the project and motivated for further active participation in it. During the meeting they discussed the possible topics for further trainings that youngsters would be interested in and the future activities they plan to do within the program implementation until the end of the year. Thus, in Varatic and Edinet the youngsters expressed great interest to the topic of fundraising for the vulnerable elderly and therefore the training devoted to this issue is scheduled for November 2016.

In some of the villages the program coordinator also managed to visit elderly beneficiaries, to talk to them and to congratulate them on the Elderly Day, which is celebrated on October 1^st.

Overall, the monitoring visit was rather productive with all the aims achieved and tasks fulfilled. The MCA coordinator will analyze the information gained and use it later for the further successful implementation of the project.

The Summer School 2016 was organized in Monastery Zăbriceni, Edinet district and gathered 47 youngsters aged from 10 to 17 years in the first round and 49 – in the second one. All the participants are involved in the project „Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas in Moldova” and come from 5 locations: Alexandreni, Coteala, Edinet, Rotunda and Varatic. The summer school activities were carried out within 13 – 17th  July, 2016.

The aim of the first tour was to focus on such aspect of advocacy campaign as public awareness raising. Within 3 days youngsters discussed its main principles and methods as well as practiced non-verbal communication through games and other activities.

The aim of the second tour was to introduce the participants to the main aspects of case management and its place in the social care system of Republic of Moldova. The participants learnt the main principles of social assistance and practiced to apply the new knowledge to the real cases from their localities.

During the summer school youngsters were not only involved in learning process but also developed their physical abilities by helping the monastery with gardening and other small outdoor tasks. The teenagers also enjoyed playing badminton and sport games as well as drawing and handicrafts workshop that was organized by one of the adult volunteers. The evenings were spent in the atmosphere of a big family watching educative films and follow-up discussions with the cup of tea.

Overall, the summer school as an annual event is always highly appreciated and pretty much anticipated by the youngsters since it provides both the opportunity to learn something new and to socialize with peers and make new friends.

On August 28^th, 2016 the volunteers of the project “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova” in Varatic village together with the priest Ghenadie Dascal organized a meal of commemoration of the deceased local teachers and doctors. The aim of the meal was to raise the prestige of the professions of the doctor and teacher by remembering the biography and devoted work of those who spent their lives serving the community needs.

The event took place using the social canteen facilities and was attended by 200 people from the community. Among the participants there was the local school director together with other teachers as well as the director of the kindergarden with the colleagues who addressed to the villagers with the speech about the deceased teachers –their life and professional achievements. The local doctor with other health workers present also told the villagers about their deceased colleagues and the importance of their work for the community.

Overall, the event managed to raise the people’s awareness of the importance of social oriented professions such as doctors and teachers as well as showed the potential of the social canteen to become the platform for uniting people for the common good.

On July 16-17th, 2016 the training „Case management in the social assistance system of the Republic of Moldova” was organized within the program „Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova”. The training was attended by 49 participants, among which there were parish priests, social workers and young volunteers.

The training consisted of 2 parts-theoretical and practical so that to give the participants an opportunity to test the practical application of the knowledge gained in real-life situations in their communities.

In the first part of the seminar the trainer drew the participants attention to the social assistance system structure and its basic notions; principles of implementation of case management and its possible outcomes; the place of case management as a tool within the social assistance system of Moldova. These topics arose much interest in the participants since some of the services presented were quite new for the participants.

In the second part of the seminar participants were introduced to the tools that are used in case management: social survey and customized plan of assistance. Together with the trainer participants analyzed each part of the survey and completed it with information from a sample case study. Afterwards the participants worked on the action plans.

According to the evaluation forms completed by the participants at the end of the training, they assessed the event positively, saying that the information was very useful although sometimes difficult to comprehend.

MCA staff continued the series of the trainings for young people within the "Preventing DV by empowering vulnerable youngsters in the Southern region of Moldova" program. On April 9, 2016 a training for young people in Ulmu parish was organized. Its aim was to strengthen capacity of vulnerable youngsters to recognize and prevent different forms of abuse by giving them the necessary knowledge and tools.

Expert with a vast experience in social work and youth work, Cristina Coroban, was invited to conduct the sessions and facilitate the learning process. 20 youngsters from the Youth Center in Ulmu parish aged between 10 and 15 participated in the training activities. They got easily involved in the discussions, exercises and games, small groups work and role-plays proposed by the trainer. Using the participatory methods the facilitator could reach and keep the interest of such young audience.

Vulnerable youngsters living in poverty and rough conditions are often at risk of being abused by parents or witness cases of abuse and violence. They have limited access to information on how to protect themselves and/or to prevent domestic violence. In rural areas access to education is lower, while the risk of abuse is higher. Following its mission to support the most vulnerable MCA provides training for young people in the area of domestic violence prevention.

Within April 15 -16, 2016 two trainings for youngsters in Ciucur-Mingir and Hansca parishes were organized. The trainings aimed at empowering vulnerable young people to develop skills and abilities to prevent different forms of violence.

40 youngsters (14 boys and 26 girls) aged 11-15 participated in the training activities. Cristina Coroban, expert in social work in area of youth, conducted the training sessions. To create a warm and open learning environment she started with ice braking exercise "Flower of qualities" during which the participants had to write at least 5 of their qualities on the flower petals and to share with their peers. Next sessions continued with teamwork and role play activities, watching films and group discussions that lead to a more interesting and effective learning process.

In the end of the sessions the participants were able to define:

• Main forms of emotional violence;
• Features of child labor exploitation and how to fight it;
• The actors involved in preventing domestic violence.

The youngsters also had a good opportunity to socialize, to reflect on serious issues and to accomplish challenging tasks together that contributes to their personal development and stronger group cohesion.

Even though the participants were tired in the end of such intensive training, they showed great interest in participation in the following trainings that MCA is going to organize this summer.

On April 5, 2016 MCA organized a one-day training for 20 vulnerable youngsters in parish Mereni. The training was carried out within the third year of implementing "Preventing DV by empowering vulnerable youngsters in the Southern region of Moldova" program.

Being part of the program this training lead to reaching one of the important objectives - to strengthen vulnerable young peoples' capacity to recognize and prevent domestic violence in their communities.

24 youngsters from vulnerable and other families, aged between 10 and 15 participated in the activities.

Ms. Cristina Coroban, expert in social sciences and youth work, conducted the training activities and facilitated the learning process. The discussions started with an ice-braking exercise and it helped the participants to open up and get ready for the upcoming sessions. In order to assist youngsters in learning and applying the new knowledge in practice the facilitator used interactive and participatory learning methods such as exercises, role-plays, games, teamwork activities.

Within one session young participants watched a film on consequences of child abuse and discussed its message afterwards guided by the trainer. As one of the consequences presented in the film was the suicide it impressed the participants deeply and brought up mixed feelings in them.

The training in Mereni ended up with an evaluation session. The majority of young people assessed the training as helpful or very helpful and stated that in future trainings they would like to learn more about family values, teenage problems, tolerance and peace between people.

On July 14th, 2016 in Zabriceni Monastery a training was organized for 47 young volunteers of the program “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova” aged 11-16. The youngsters come from 5 communities: Alexandreni, Coteala, Edinet, Rotunda, Varatic and represent typical socially vulnerable families of the rural areas. The objective of the workshop was to motivate the participants to organize advocacy campaigns and to strengthen their skills in developing strong communicative messages and promoting them in the local community. The trainer was Cristina Coroban - manager of Center for Children, Adolescents and Family.

During the event the trainer used different interactive methods to enable the participants to plan and assess an advocacy campaign in their village as well as to raise public awareness on the needs of the vulnerable. Among the exercises that were mostly enjoyed by the young participants during the training course was “Elevator”, in which the youngsters had to imagine that they were in the elevator with somebody very famous and had only three minutes to talk about the problems of the elderly people from their locations. The exercise helped the youngsters to overcome shyness and to realize they are also responsible members of community and can make the change there. At the end of the training the participants filled in an evaluation form where the majority of the youngsters claimed that their expectations had been met and the topics addressed were quite useful.

Training „Techniques and strategies for advocacy"

On March 7-8^th, 2016 Moldovan Christian Aid conducted a training „Techniques and strategies for advocacy". The event took place on the premises of the Lyceum „ Sfânta Cuvioasă Muceniţă Elisabeta” in Edinet and was organized within the project “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova”. The trainer was Cristina Coroban - manager of Center for Children, Adolescents and Family.

The first day of the training gathered 26 participants including 5 priests and 21 adult volunteers from 5 communities: Alexăndreni, Coteala, Edineț, Rotunda and Văratic. The participants learned the main characteristics of the advocacy as well as specific advocacy techniques and strategies. They also worked on advocacy projects by presenting the problems of their locations and then creating the drafts of possible advocacy activities. Afterwards, in a group discussion the participants managed to point out the strong and weak points of each plan and to improve it according to the new information they learned.

On the second day the participants were 46 young volunteers from the same 5 communities who learnt about the importance of youth involvement in the advocacy campaigns. The youngsters worked in mixed groups and developed an advocacy campaign plan from their perspective. Different interactive methods were used to get everyone involved and play an active role in the discussion. At the end of the training the participants completed the evaluation forms where they admitted to have learnt a lot of useful information and developed some basic advocating skills.