Moldovan Christian Aid

Due to the fact that the studying group was international, our representatives had a good exchange of practices and ideas. One of the results was the agreement to implement the training program that was piloted in Namibia, or at least a part of it.

At the end of the visit, our partners from Filantropia donated us about 30 blankets handmade by their beneficiaries to be distributed in Moldova to elderly people in need.

The overall result of participating to the training of the better understanding of the CABLE methodology and the principles of applying it in practice. Our representatives are planning to share their experience with local partners and to encourage them to apply it in practice.

The activities that were organized are as follows:

Youth Club „Alex - Club”, Alexandreni village, Edinet district, prepared a couple of sketches and organized a theatrical evening at the community cultural house.

Youth Club „The Formidables”, Blesteni village, Edinet district, organized a soiree on the topic of importance of the marriage and good relations in the family.

Youth Club „Young Dreamers”, Coteala village, Briceni district organized a gastronomic delight for the district hospital patients.

Youth Club „Courageous”, Edinet city organized a series of round tables for the vulnerable youngster from the high school.

Youth Club “All for change”, Rotunda village, Edinet district in partnership with the village hall organized a concert at the community cultural center with the occasion of the international women’s day – 8 of March.

Youth Club “Friends forever”, Sirauti village, Briceni district, together with the school and village hall organized a round table on the problems that youngsters are facing in the community.

Youth Club “Nicoliada”, Terebna village, Edinet district, at the 1^st of March organized a flash - mob in the center of the village.

Youth Club “Youth and Adults”, Varatic village, Riscani district organized an open seminar on the negative influence of the internet on youngsters behavior.

Youth Club “Innovative Youth”, Brinzeni village, Edinet district organized a festival with the occasion of the international women’s day – 8^th of March.

On October 5-7 MCA program coordinator Dorin Birsanu participated in the meeting with members of Honorary Council of Interdiac (International Academy for Diaconia and Social action in Central and Eastern Europe). 14 people from Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Hungary, Serbia, Kazahstan and Czech Republic together with 3 staff members of the host participated in the meeting.

Despite the cold and rainy weather a warm and friendly working atmosphere was created from the very beginning of the meeting which started with worship and a devotion session. The first day continued with a convivial evening during which everyone was invited to present their country, working environment or church by storytelling, short videos or in any other way.

During the second day the director of Interdiac, Janka Adameova, presented the activities implemented last year. The main focus was on the successes and challenges of Double Degree Program. In addition, the participants also discussed the new issues that affect their communities and countries and the social areas which need most urgent interventions. Also the members were asked to think on and identify the development needs of their community/organization/church and their personal or colleagues' learning needs.

On the last day the discussions focused on planning the future of Interdiac - how participants see it in the next 3 years and their role and contribution to it in terms of knowledge, skills and competences. The meeting ended with an evaluation session and a prayer for the peace and love in the whole world.

On the whole, the meeting was a good and inspiring event to consolidate the community of Interdiac honorary council meeting members, which aimed to remind of the need for personal and professional continuous development too. It also was a great opportunity to share opinions and learn from experience of the others in the field of diaconal and social work and helped the participants to understand deeper the meaning of consolidated teamwork.

On October 25, 2016 Moldovan Christian Aid in cooperation with Association Against Violence "Casa Marioarei" organized the training sessions for the personnel and volunteers of the youth centres. The meeting gathered 19 people from Abaclia, Ciucur-Mingir, Ulmu, Hansca and Mereni parishes.

The training scope was to develop participants' fundraising skills and knowledge by learning methods and strategies of building partnership with NGOs, funds, businesses that could support their activities and projects.

Expert in fundraising, Nati Vozian, conducted the training activities and facilitated the participants' learning using interactive and participatory methods. Following the idea of fundraising and how it works she introduced the participants with the most important tools and techniques.

During the training sessions the participants got involved in group work, role-plays and simulation exercises using the acquired knowledge and practising the new skills.

In addition to that, they discussed how to overcome the fear or shyness when speaking with an authority, funding agency officer or public officer. In order to be more confident it is good to establish a warm and friendly relationship with the decision makers via contacting by phone or email before the meeting itself. Also it is very important to have good communication skills and the ability to present your project idea shortly revealing the most relevant sides and the impact it will produce.

The participants learned the methods of applying for financial support to different international funds, local and national private donors. Among others, they discussed the method of crowd funding that seemed interesting only to part of the audience and therefore wasn't further developed. However, the trainer shared with the participants the name of international crowd funding platforms and basic information on how they work, so those interested could use it for their fundraising purposes. The priests, teachers and volunteers participating in the training went home thinking on the ideas of fundraising and ways of implementing them in practice.

On November 3^rd, 2016 MCA organized a round table discussion with its local partners - coordinators and staff of the Youth Centers. It was the third meeting planned for the current year.

Program coordinator Dorin Birsanu moderated and facilitated the meeting which was held in the MCA office. Total number of 15 people participated in the discussion: priests, social workers, teachers and volunteers that work in the Youth Centers established in 5 villages with the support of MCA and Church of Sweden.

During the meeting the participants shared the information about the running activities of their centers and discussed the issues they face while working with vulnerable young people. Among the other subjects discussed were: motivation of youngsters to participate in the center's activities- how to make them attractive and at the same time useful for them; the situation of the beneficiaries- whether it improved or not and why.

In the end the participants shared their experience in the sphere of preventing domestic violence in their parishes and acting and helping to overcome crisis situations of child and female abuse.

The round table discussion was not only a good team building activity but also a good opportunity for the centers personnel to discuss important topics and issues that occur daily in their work and working environment.

Moldovan Christian Aid staff carried on with providing training for vulnerable youth from rural areas in Southern region of Moldova and equipping them with necessary knowledge, skills and tools on Domestic Violence prevention.

Within October 13-22, 2016 MCA staff in cooperation with the Youth Centers teams from the selected 5 parishes organized 5 trainings for youngsters that are main beneficiaries of these centers. The trainings were held separately on the premises of each Youth Center.

The trainings aimed to strengthen participants' skills and to consolidate their knowledge in the area of preventing violent behavior. The focus was on controlling negative emotions and developing friendly relationships with the people around in order to prevent domestic violence and violence in the community.

Totally 102 young people, 66 girls and 36 boys, participated in the trainings. The participants are youngsters aged between 10 and 16, majority of them coming from vulnerable families from the villages. The trainer, Ms. Cristina Coroban, expert in social services and youth work used participatory and non-formal education tools and encouraged everyone to express their idea or opinion on the topic. During the sessions the participants were divided into different teams so each of them could interact and socialize with as many peers as possible.

At the end of the training the participants were able to recognize:

• The forms of emotional violence;
• Negative emotions and how to deal with them;
• Consequences of domestic violence on children.

The most exciting activities for young people were role-plays, team exercises and film watching followed by discussions on its message. After each task the trainer asked the participants to think over its scope and learning outcome. Moreover, youngsters were invited to come up with examples on the issues discussed, in some cases it was difficult for them to do it and the trainer had to intervene and bring examples. It helped young people to understand better the concepts or information under discussions.

During the evaluation session the majority of the participants marked the training with an "A" telling it was very helpful and interesting and they would like to have more such trainings. Some of them proposed to watch longer films. Among the future topics to discuss they mentioned: How to prevent emotional violence, Intimidation, Youngsters behavior, etc.

In order to strengthen capacities of MCA local partners and youth centres’ personnel that is involved in supporting vulnerable young people from rural areas within the program Preventing Domestic Violence by empowering vulnerable youngsters in the Southern region of Moldova a training was organized.

Among the participants there were people representing different professions such as priests, schoolteachers, psychologists, and social workers.

On May 11, 2016 MCA in cooperation with Association Against Violence "Casa Marioarei" organized the training sessions for 20 people from Abaclia, Ciucur-Mingir, Mereni, Hansca and Ulmu parishes. It was the first training for centres personnel out of three planned for 2016. Expert in social work, Elena Cebotari together with expert in youth psychology and the president of School Sports Federation of Moldova, Iurie Berlinskii conducted the training activities.

The training aimed at developing the personnel’s skills and knowledge in youth work by learning new tools and methods of non-formal education and to adapt those to the needs of their beneficiaries. It also aimed at discussing and practicing exciting and attractive activities for youngsters that they could organize in the youth centres.

The meeting started with a short worship session and introduction of the participants. The following discussions included topics such as maintaining the motivation of vulnerable young people to participate in personal development and learning activities as well as in voluntary work; the importance and necessity of the teamwork including interactive, sport and entertaining activities. The psychologists and social workers present at the training highlighted the importance of organising activities for youngsters together with their parents. Later on, the participants tried several new sports and teamwork activities themselves, which brought an entertaining element to the training. The last session focused on drawing up the conclusions on discussed topics, sharing new ideas in the sphere of youth work and of course evaluating the quality of the training and the usefulness of the knowledge acquired.

Within June 29- July 6, 2016 MCA together with the local partners organized a summer school for vulnerable youngsters from 5 parishes in Southern Moldova. The place for it was chosen in consultation with the coordinators of the 5 Youth Centers established in the selected communities. The convent "St. Marta and Maria" situated in Causeni district, southeast of Moldova is approximately at the same distance away from all 5 villages and has the facilities and experience in hosting summer schools for young people.

The summer school was organized to answer young people's need to develop skills and abilities that are necessary for becoming active citizens and important social actors in their communities whose voices are to be taken into consideration by their families and community members.

The participants were vulnerable youngsters selected by the MCA local partners from the beneficiaries of the Youth Centers as well as other children coming from unsafe social environments. During two rounds of 3 days each of 92 young people aged between 10 and 17 from Mereni, Abaclia, Ciucur-Mingir, Ulmu and Hansca participated in the activities. For some sessions the youngsters were divided in smaller teams by 24 or 12 participants.

The summer school objectives were to establish a strong network of support among young people, to increase their self-confidence, to provide emotional and educational support and in this way to strengthen their capacities in facing daily difficulties of their lives. The objectives were reached through involving youngsters in ice-braking games, team-building exercises, volunteering activities, sport events, hand-made workshops, participation in the church service, discussions with the nuns, film watching and daily reflections.

This event is a unique chance for many vulnerable young people to get out of the routine, to meet new people and interact with the peers from other villages, to see new places and to be part of the non-formal educational environment. New friendships have been established during the summer school and contacts exchanged which can grow in life-long relationships. Even though in some moments it was difficult to organize the children and to keep the silence within the groups the effort was worth it.

On sunny days of March 6-7th 2017, 50 young volunteers gathered in Edinet for a traning “Homecare services and communication with the elderly people”.  The participants came from 5 villages that are involved in the project “Strengthening advocacy capacities of the local CSOs to support vulnerable elderly in rural areas of Moldova”. The event was facilitated by Elena Adașan, expert in homecare services and pedagogics and director of Balti Social-Medical Centre “Rebeca”, part of NGO “Homecare”.

The event started with ice-breaking exercises and the introduction to the topic where the participants discussed the concept of homecare and the importance of it. Youngsters shared their background knowledge in this area and realized that there was something more to learn to make their volunteering experience more beneficial. Afterwards, the group focused on the communication process and in form of interactive exercises they practiced transmitting different messages and defining the aims of communication.

After the refreshing coffee break the participants were ready and eager to discuss the peculiarities of the communication with the elderly people. In form of a role play the teenagers practiced the new skills and had some fun while acting out a conversation between a village mayor and volunteers and elderly beneficiaries.

In the afternoon the training activities were mainly devoted to the volunteering and homecare services. In two teams the youngsters defined the positive and negative qualities of the volunteer and realized that the first list is much longer than the second.

This exercise was followed by the discussion of the homecare services that can be provided by young volunteers and how to do it in the best way.

Overall, the participants were very active during the event, especially when it came to interaction, teamwork and competition. They were glad to meet their peers from other villages and encouraged to continue helping the elderly and volunteer in the project.

Annual Forum is a traditional way to end another year of a project implementation and this time it took place on November 25 in Edinet. The event gathered 78 people from 5 locations – Alexandreni, Coteala, Edinet, Rotunda and Varatic. The aim of the Annual Forum was to summarize and to present all the work done within the project in the current year, to share experiences, to learn from each other and to get motivated for further active participation in the project activities.

The event started with the opening speech of one of the priests who delivered the greetings and blessings from the Bishop of Edinet and Briceni to all the participants of the event.  Afterwards the project coordinator from MCA took the stage to host the intellectual quiz “Young and Erudite” specially designed for the event. The tasks of the quiz covered the topics that the youngsters discussed during the trainings within a year as well as questions of general interest and logical ones. The participants revised  the age of becoming a pensioner in Moldova, the ways of collecting money for the elderly , had to provide quick solution to an example of a case management as well as to identify the local stakeholders for their villages. At the end of the quiz the winning teams received the prizes (board games) and the cups while the other participants were quite challenged and  motivated to learn as much as they can from participation in the project next year.

During the following stage of the Forum youngsters from all the 5 locations prepared and demonstrated the presentations of the advocacy campaigns they carried out in 2016.  They shared their experiences and were quite curious to see what had been done in other villages as well. This provided an opportunity to learn from the others, to see similar and familiar situations in another light and to take new ideas into consideration for further application in their own villages.

The highlight of the event was awarding those who had been involved in the project implementation a little bit more that the others. In each village 1 young volunteer was elected who was the most active in all the project activities and played the leading role throughout the year. These people received the wall clock with the inscription “The best volunteer 2016”.