This March Partnerships for Every Child (P4EC) held a series of trainings for the persons who will be implementing the psycho-social assistance program for children coming from alcohol-affected families. Thus, about 30 persons were selected and trained, who come from the pilot regions of the program: Ungheni, Orhei, Calarasi, Telenesti, and Falesti. They will act as moderators for two groups of the program’s beneficiaries: children and adults.
This educational program with therapeutic effects targets/ two categories of beneficiaries: adults and children between 6 and 18 who have alcohol-dependent family members. The goal of the program is to determine the children change their attitude to their own and their family’s situation, change the child’s behaviour in the family, improve the psycho-emotional condition of the child coming from alcohol-affected family, prevent alcohol consumption by children, etc.
The moderators will identify the beneficiaries and organize groups, and then will organize group meetings. The training sessions will last two hours. Apart from group activities, individual meetings will be held. The participation in the program is free of charge.
The group moderators were selected in a public competition, organized in each of the five mentioned regions. They come from various professional areas and educational environments: students, teachers, kindergarten teachers, social assistants, school psychologists, service managers, local NGOs. The most important selection criteria were experience and capacities in the work with child and adult groups.
The psycho-social assistance program for children from alcohol-affected families is implemented in the Republic of Moldova since this year, based on the Swiss model of Ersta Vandpunkten built on a similar program implemented in the USA since 1977. This program has been successfully implemented in Sweden since 1989, and has covered about 1200 children so far.
The workshop was organized within the USAID-funded project “Children in Moldova live and grow in safe and secure families”, implemented by Partnerships for Every Child.